MATLAB: How to append cell arrays with a very specific form

cell arrayscombine data

I have a cell array looking like this
'Rating1'	[]	[]	[]	'8'
'Rating1'	[]	[]	'3'	[]
'Rating1'	'2'	[]	[]	[]
'Rating1'	[]	'2'	[]	[]
'Rating2'	'5'	[]	[]	[]
'Rating2'	[]	'6'	[]	[]
'Rating2'	[]	[]	'3'	[]
'Rating2'	[]	[]	[]	'7'
'Rating3'	'7'	[]	[]	[]
'Rating3'	[]	'7'	[]	[]
'Rating3'	[]	[]	'3'	[]
'Rating3'	[]	[]	[]	'7'
with more than a hundred ratings
I want it to look likes this:
'Rating1'	'2'	'2'	'3'	'8'
'Rating2'	'5'	'6'	'3'     '7'
'Rating3'	'7'	'7'	'3'	'7'
So I have to make a new variable where it appends the score in the columns based on the string in the first column.
I can't really wrap my head around this problem. Can anybody help me perhaps, or give me a push in the right direction?
Thanks alot,
Piet (pronounce as Pete)

Best Answer

As long as your data meet some assumptions:
  • each group contains exactly the same number of rows (four in your example), and
  • each row contains one non-empty data value (in columns 2 - 5).
  • The groups are contiguous.
>> C = {...
'Rating1'	[]	[]	[]	'8'
'Rating1'	[]	[]	'3'	[]
'Rating1'	'2'	[]	[]	[]
'Rating1'	[]	'4'	[]	[]
'Rating2'	'5'	[]	[]	[]
'Rating2'	[]	'6'	[]	[]
'Rating2'	[]	[]	'3'	[]
'Rating2'	[]	[]	[]	'7'
'Rating3'	'7'	[]	[]	[]
'Rating3'	[]	'7'	[]	[]
'Rating3'	[]	[]	'3'	[]
'Rating3'	[]	[]	[]	'7'
};
>> D = permute(reshape(C(:,2:5),4,[],4),[1,3,2]);
>> D(cellfun('isempty',D)) = [];
>> D = [C(1:4:end,1),reshape(D,4,[]).']
D = 
    'Rating1'    '2'    '4'    '3'    '8'
    'Rating2'    '5'    '6'    '3'    '7'
    'Rating3'    '7'    '7'    '3'    '7'
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