MATLAB: Haw to add new element of cell arrays

arraycellstring

I have a cell array of strings: {'abc','xyz','123'} and I would like to add a new element 'something' But I don't want to calculate the length of the array. Is it possible to join a new element to the end?

Best Answer

You can use the end operator:

A =  {'abc','xyz','123'};
A{end+1} = 'something'

Note that while this is okay to do a few times within the code, do not do this inside a loop, as this continually expands the array and MATLAB must check the available memory and move the array as it enlarges. This is very inefficient and slow. Instead before a loop you should preallocate the cell array. This advice also applies to preallocating numeric arrays.

Related Solutions

MATLAB: Concatenate arrays within a loop,

Easy, given any number of arrays in a cell array C. You could use a loop like this, although it is inefficient because the output array is not preallocated:

C = {[1,2],[3,4],...} % cell array of arrays.
A = C{1};
for k = 2:numel(C)
    A = [A;C{k}];
end

Simpler and more efficient would be to concatenate them all at once, without a loop, e.g.:

A = vertcat(C{:})

Whatever you do, do NOT try to access variable names dynamically in a loop! Read this to know why:

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/304528-tutorial-why-variables-should-not-be-named-dynamically-eval

Using an array (e.g. a cell array) and indexing is much simpler, neater, much more efficient, less buggy, and easier to debug.

MATLAB: Is there a way to combine a cell array element and a string array into 1 string

strcat('<', YourCharacterColumn)

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Related Solutions

MATLAB: Concatenate arrays within a loop,

MATLAB: Is there a way to combine a cell array element and a string array into 1 string

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