MATLAB: How do i filter out certain values in a cell matrix using conditions for strings

cellfindindexingMATLABmatrix

I have a cell matrix-
x = { 1 2 'a' 'q' ; 2 3 'a' 'p'; 3 4 'a' 'q'; 5 6 'b' 'p' ; 7 8 'b' 'q' ;9 8 'b' 'q';};
or x =
1  2  a  q
2  3  a  p
3  4  a  q
5  6  b  p
7  8  b  q
9  8  b  q
I want to filter out all rows that have 'a' in the 3rd column and 'q' in the fourth. My result matrix should be-
result=
1  2  a  q
3  4  a  q
How do I do this?

Best Answer

You can use contains to find the required letter. contains gives true if the part of search string contains in the main string.
x(contains(x(:,3),'a') & contains(x(:,4),'q'),(3:4))
Better to use strcmp, as it check for complete string. strcmp checks for the complete strings. It gives true only when the complete string is present.
x(strcmp(x(:,3),'a') & strcmp(x(:,4),'q'),(3:4))
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