Handling data cell array

Hi there,

I am working with a cell array (numbers and strings) and need to reorganise my data. The problem is I struggle to rearrrange the data from my cell array.

This is an example of what I have:

A = {'x 30%/y 20%' 'x 10%' 'x 50%/z 40%' 'z 15%' 'y 5%/z 90%' 'z 25%'}';

I would like to rearrange the data from the array A in three columns, corresponding to x, y and z where each row correponds to the number accompanying each string value (x,y, and z) and zero in case there is no explicit string value. Specifically, I would like to have something like this:

B = [30 20 0; 10 0 0; 50 0 40; 0 0 15; 0 5 90;0 0 25];

Thanks a lot in advance for any help/hint.

Best wishes,

Fco.

Ps: I'm using Matlab R2019b

Answer 1

[the cyclist]

It's not pretty, but it does what you want:

% Original data
A = {'x 30%/y 20%' 'x 10%' 'x 50%/z 40%' 'z 15%' 'y 5%/z 90%' 'z 25%'}';

% Row count
rows = size(A,1);

% Identify the rows with x,y,z
idx = [contains(A,{'x'}) contains(A,{'y'}) contains(A,{'z'})];

% Extract the numeric values.
% "regexp" extracts strings, then "strdouble" converts to numeric
values = cellfun(@(x)(str2double(regexp(x,'\d*','match'))),A,'UniformOutput',false);

% Initialize new array
B = zeros(rows,3);

% Row-by-row, insert values into corresponding index locations
for nr = 1:rows
    B(nr,idx(nr,:)) = values{nr};
end

Note that this algorithm relies on the fact that the x,y,z values appear in that order, and you never have a row like

A = {'z 30%/y 20%'}

[Francisco Pinto]

Dear Cyclist, thanks a lot! I does what I need. Luckily in my case the order is always like this: x,y,z.

Answer 2

[Paul Hoffrichter]

Yes, regex is elegant. Here is a non-regex script.

This algorithm allows the x,y,z to be in any order in each row of A.

A = {'x 30%/y 20%' 'x 10%' 'x 50%/z 40%' 'z 15%' 'y 5%/z 90%' 'z 25%'}'
Alen = length(A);
B = zeros(Alen,3);
letters = {'x', 'y', 'z'};

for row = 1:Alen
   entry = A{row};
   col = 1;
   for ch = letters
      lOffset = strfind( entry, ch );
      if ~isempty( lOffset )
         pOffset = find( entry(lOffset+1:end) == '%', 1, 'first' );
         B(row,col) = str2double(entry( lOffset+1: lOffset+1+pOffset-2 ));
      end
      col = col + 1;
   end
end
B

Output:

A =
  6×1 cell array
    {'x 30%/y 20%'}
    {'x 10%'      }
    {'x 50%/z 40%'}
    {'z 15%'      }
    {'y 5%/z 90%' }
    {'z 25%'      }
B =
    30    20     0
    10     0     0
    50     0    40
     0     0    15
     0     5    90
     0     0    25

[Francisco Pinto]

Dear Paul, it works perfectly. Thanks a lot!