MATLAB: Find a column number from a cell array

cell arraycolumn number

I have a cell array from which I just know that some of its columns are "empty" and I would like to find those. For example I have an array:
 C={1,'',6,11,''; 2,'',7,12,'';3,'',8,13,'';4,'',9,14,'';5,'',10,15,''}
And I would like my answers to be:
col_num1=2
col_num2=5
(meaning that 2nd and 5th columns are empty, the names for answer are not oblicatory but I would need them later on in my calculation)

Best Answer

You need to apply the isempty function to each element of C to get a logical matrix. You can use an explicit loop or cellfun. It just then a matter of applying all to that logical matrix to find columns with all empty. Thus:
C = {1,'',6,11,''; 2,'',7,12,'';3,'',8,13,'';4,'',9,14,'';5,'',10,15,''};
emptycolumns = all(cellfun(@isempty, C))
%if you want the column number (often unnecessary, you can use the logical array directly)
emptycolumnsidx = find(emptycolumns)
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