MATLAB: Extract integer number from a cell array.

Question

Hi,

I need to extract only number from a cell array. For example, from the cell array given below I only need to take 17 out,

{'REMOVE UNIT 1 FROM BUS 17←'}

or from the following cell I need 459 and 496

{'OPEN BRANCH FROM BUS 459 TO BUS 496 CIRCUIT 1←'}. How can I do that?

Till now what I've done, I've split the cell into multiple cells on the basis of delimiter, like the following

16×1 cell array

{'OPEN' }

{'BRANCH' }

{'FROM' }

{'BUS' }

{0×0 char }

{0×0 char }

{0×0 char }

{'459' }

{'TO' }

{'BUS' }

{0×0 char }

{0×0 char }

{0×0 char }

{'496' }

{'CIRCUIT'}

{'1←' }

what happens, depending on the number of spaces in between the index of the numbers vary in different cases. How can I solve this issue in a better approach? Please let me know.

Thank you.

Answer 1

If my understanding is correct, you are trying to extract numbers just after 'BUS'.

If so, how about the following?

% Original text
str =...
  {'OPEN BRANCH FROM BUS    459 TO BUS    496 CIRCUIT 1←';...
   'REMOVE UNIT 1 FROM BUS     17←'};
 
% Extract 'BUS + number'
data = regexp(str,'BUS\s+\d+','match');
% Extract number(s)
for kk = 1:numel(data)
  data{kk} = regexprep(data{kk},'BUS\s+','');
end

The result is:

>> data{1}

ans =

1×2 cell array

{'459'} {'496'}

>> data{2}

ans =

1×1 cell array

{'17'}