MATLAB: Finding unique string variables from a column vector

Question

Dear all,

I insert an excel file into matlab as follows

clear

clear all

[data,text,all] = xlsread(A.xlsx');

 mdata0=[all];

mdata1=num2cell(mdata0);

and I want to use the command

ismember(mdata1(:,5),unique(mdata1(:,5)))

where mdata1(:,5) contains string variables

but whenever I issue that command I get

??? Error using ==> cell.unique at 47

Input must be a cell array of strings.

Any suggestions?

thanks

Answer 1

[data,text,alld] = xlsread('A.xlsx');
mdata1 = alld(:,5);
t = cellfun(@(x)isnumeric(x),mdata1);
mdata1(t) = cellfun(@(x)num2str(x),mdata1(t),'un',0);
[out,out]= ismember(mdata1,unique(mdata1));