How many zeros do I have before a specific sting variable?

Dear all

I have

A={

    [0]
    [0]
    [0]
    [0]
    [0]
    [0]
    [0]
    [0]
    [0]
    [0]
    [0]
    [0]
    [0]
    [0]
    [0]
    [0]
    [0]
    [0]
    [0]
    [0]
    [0]
    [0]
    [0]
    [0]
    [0]
    [0]
    [0]
    [0]
    [0]
    [0]
    [0]
    [0]
    [0]
    [0]
    [0]
    [0]
    [0]
    [0]
    [0]
    ' b1'
    ' b1'
    ' b1'
    ' b1'
    ' b1'
    'b1'
    ' b1'
[0]
[0]
[0]
'b1'
    ' b1'}

I have this cell vector. This vector has a characteristic. Immediately after the first zeros the letter 'b1' begins. So I would like to count the zeros before the first 'b1' that starts to appear in this vector. In this case I have 39 zeros. Is it possible to calculate this number using a Matlab code?

thanks

Answer 1

[Andrei Bobrov]

yourzeros = find(cellfun(@ischar,A),1,'first')-1;

Answer 2

[Matt Fig]

T = strfind(cellfun(@(x) ~x(1),A).',[1 0])

Notice that T will show you the index of every zero that is followed by a nonzero. So you want T(1).

Answer 3

[Azzi Abdelmalek]

min(find(cellfun(@(x) ~isnumeric(x),A)))-1

Answer 4

[Oleg Komarov]

Another solution:

pos = strfind([A{:}],'b')-1
pos(1)

[Andrei Bobrov]

Hi Oleg! may be in this case so?

pos = strfind([A{:}],' ')-1
pos(1)

[Oleg Komarov]

I assumed the ' ' was a typing error :)