Split the given string into characters

I have a column in my table that has values such as '2.6ELKUxQKWPVJVHxxxxC.4xxxIxSxJJxxxxx', it has altogether 37 single characters. I want to split the string into 37 different columns for further data analysis. I have tried using 'split' function, but it doesn't work.

[Stephen23]

"I want to split the string into 37 different columns..."

Your char vector already has 37 columns. This is easy to check:

>> str = '2.6ELKUxQKWPVJVHxxxxC.4xxxIxSxJJxxxxx';
>> size(str)
ans =
    1   37

Answer 1

[Image Analyst]

Here's an example for 8 columns. You can expand it to 37 columns.

ca = {'1.6ELKUxQKWPVJVHxxxxC.4xxxIxSxJJxxxxx'; '2.6ELKUxQKWPVJVHxxxxC.4xxxIxSxJJxxxxx'; '3.6ELKUxQKWPVJVHxxxxC.4xxxIxSxJJxxxxx'}
t = cell2table(ca)
% Now we have our table.
% Extract this one column:
col1 = t{:,1}
% Make 37 cell arrays
ca1 = cell(37, 1);
ca2 = cell(37, 1);
ca3 = cell(37, 1);
ca4 = cell(37, 1);
ca5 = cell(37, 1);
ca6 = cell(37, 1);
ca7 = cell(37, 1);
ca8 = cell(37, 1);
for row = 1 : length(col1)
  thisRow = col1{row};
  ca1{row} = thisRow(1);
  ca2{row} = thisRow(2);
  ca3{row} = thisRow(3);
  ca4{row} = thisRow(4);
  ca5{row} = thisRow(5);
  ca6{row} = thisRow(6);
  ca7{row} = thisRow(7);
  ca8{row} = thisRow(8);
end
t2 = table(ca1, ca2, ca3, ca4, ca5, ca6, ca7, ca8)

[Guillaume]

Here's an example for 8 columns. You can expand it to 37 columns.

Eww! I'm sorry but no. Numbered variables are an abomination. In addition there seems to be a mix-up between rows and columns since t2 ends up as 37 rows x 8 columns table.

I stand by my initial statement that the whole exercise is completely pointless. It's trivial to index character of a char array so adding an unnecessary extra level of indexing is a waste of time. I certainly don't see the point in stuffing individual characters as columns of a table. Tables are designed to store heterogeneous data, not this.

But if it's really what's needed, then

t2 = array2table(cell2mat(t{:, 1}))

is a lot simpler than this looping and numbered variables.

[Abdul Rehan Khan Mohammed]

Thanks! yes, it is a lot simpler.

[Image Analyst]

Yes simpler, but I agree with Guillaume that it's better to leave it as a string and not create a table with all those columns.

Answer 2

[KSSV]

str = '2.6ELKUxQKWPVJVHxxxxC.4xxxIxSxJJxxxxx' ;
iwant = cell(1,length(str)) ;

for i = 1:length(str) 
    iwant{i} = str(i) ;
end

[Stephen23]

Much simpler to use num2cell:

iwant = num2cell(str);

[KSSV]

Yaaaa..:/

[Guillaume]

And even much simpler is not to bother at all. str already has 37 different columns. Each one can be accessed with str(columnindex).

Answer 3

[Guillaume]

A char array such as

str = '2.6ELKUxQKWPVJVHxxxxC.4xxxIxSxJJxxxxx'

already has different columns. If you want to access column 6 of str, it's simply:

str(6)

Exactly the same as when accessing columns of a numerical matrix.

[Image Analyst]

He means columns of his table, not columns of that string.