MATLAB: How to check whether a column exist in a table

Question

Hi all,

I search for this question in the web and found the following solution: Suppose I have a table named 'My_Table' and want to check if it contains a column (field) named 'My_Column'. The code:

Exist_Column = strmatch('My_Column',My_Table.Properties.VariableNames)

should result in logical that answer the question. I checked it and it works. However, the Matlab editor commented that 'strmatch' is not a recommended function to use because it is about to be removed in future version and suggest instead the use of either 'strncmp' or 'validatestring'. Problem is that both do not return a logical and more steps are required to get the answer.

So, my question is: what is the simplest recommended way to determine if a certain column name exist in a table?

Thanks,

Alon

Answer 1

Exist_Column = strcmp('My_Column',My_Table.Properties.VariableNames)
val = Exist_Column(Exist_Column==1) ;