MATLAB: Assigning cell to variable only assigns first value

cell arraysfunctionMATLABoop

I have a function designed to return a string by comparing an input string against a predetermined array defining pairs of values. The problem is on the very last line which doesn't seem to like setting the final cell array of strings. grouping is a scalar string, and groupsCats and catsBehavs are both 2xN cell arrays of string pairs.

      function behaviours = getBehaviours(obj, grouping)
          [~, catIndices] = find(strcmp(grouping, obj.groupsCats));
          catName = obj.groupsCats{2, catIndices};
          [~, behaviourIndices] = find(strcmp(catName, obj.catsBehavs));
          behaviourIndices = rot90(behaviourIndices); % Rotate to return correct strings in next step
          behaviours = obj.catsBehavs{1, behaviourIndices};
      end

During debugging running obj.catsBehavs{1, behaviourIndices} will return the correct list, but assigning it to a variable will only set the first value on the array. I'm pretty sure I'm missing some basic cell syntax here but I can't work it out.

Best Answer

Use parentheses instead:

behaviours = obj.catsBehavs(1, behaviourIndices);

You want to keep the cell array type so don't use { } to extract what is in it instead

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MATLAB: Does STRMATCH in MATLAB cause an error for a cell array containing a numeric value

In this example:

str = 9;
strs = strvcat('This is a string array','with two rows');
ind = strmatch(str,strs);

the normal STRMATCH is used, since the first input is not a cell array. In this case, 9 could be used as an ASCII value, and converted to a tab character. That character can then be compared with the other strings.

In this example:

str ={9};
strs = strvcat('This is a cell array of strings','with two rows');
ind = strmatch(str,strs);

@CELL/STRMATCH will be used, since the first input is a cell array. In this case, the code checks that the cell array contains strings, and converts it to a char array:

if iscellstr(str), str = char(str); end

Cell arrays of strings are special cases of cell arrays, which are commonly used to store strings together which have different lengths, and there are many instances where cell arrays of strings and strings can be used interchangeably. However, {9} is not a cell array of strings, so it is not converted to a character array, which leads to the error being thrown by this code:

if ~ischar(str) | ~ischar(strs)
    error('Requires character array or cell array of strings as inputs.')
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MATLAB: Concatenate cell and integer array horizontally

You will need to convert the integer array into a cell array, e.g. using num2cell:

for k = 1:size(Group1_KOs,2)
    Group1_KOs(k).Behaviours = [Group1_KOs(k).Behaviours,num2cell(EventDuration(k).Behaviours)];
end %                                                   ^^^^^^^^^                           ^

Best Answer

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MATLAB: Does STRMATCH in MATLAB cause an error for a cell array containing a numeric value

MATLAB: Concatenate cell and integer array horizontally

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