how to know what type of dataset you have?

Hi I am new to MATLAB and programming in general and get confused across knowing what type of data sets i have i.e cell array matrix numeric int etc as sometimes when creating.

I know there are various functions like iscell(x) to find out the details of if its a cell etc but is there and easier way to test this. For example a generic command in which you would have is???(x) and it will pop out and tell you exactly what type of data set you have. I ask this as most my confusion and errors at the moment come because i don't know what i have created all the time and spend ages trying to find out what i have and convert it to whats needed.

can someone tell me the difference between a cell and matrix?

sorry for basic stupid questions but just like to build up my knowledge base....also a link to detailed documentation would be good also.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

[Jan]

Are you looking for the class command?

a = cell(1, 3)
b = 1:3
class(a)
class(b)

A matrix consists of scalar elements, which all have the same type. But a cell can contain elements of different types and they can have different sizes also:

A = [1, 2, 3; 4, 5, 6];
C = {1, [1,2], 'Hello', {'A nested cell'}}

[Gurvinder]

Fantastic, thank you