MATLAB: How to search and sort strings from a structure efficently

sortingstringsstructures

Lets say I have one structure with file names as character arrays (strings). Some file names have Z1P in them, Z1G, or Z1K. Other's might not. What I am trying to do is sort this structure (Called Dat.standard.name) by these files names, into a separate structure with the strings that I am looking for as fields. So from the Dat.standard.name, the unsorted data gets sorted into a structure called Sort.standard.Z1P for any files that have Z1P in them, Sort.standard.Z1G for any files that have Z1G in them and so on. Any ideas on how to go about this in the most efficient manner?

Best Answer

Dat.standard(1).name = 'x';
Dat.standard(2).name = 'xZ1P';
Dat.standard(3).name = 'x';
Dat.standard(4).name = 'xZ1G';
Dat.standard(5).name = 'x';
Dat.standard(1).data = 1;
Dat.standard(2).data = 2;
Dat.standard(3).data = 3;
Dat.standard(4).data = 4;
Dat.standard(5).data = 5;
C = {'Z1P','Z1G','Z1K'};
S = Dat.standard;
fun = @(s)cellfun('isempty',regexp(s,C,'once'));
idx = cellfun(@(s)any(~fun(s)),{S.name});
Srt.standard = S(idx);
Where Srt.standard contains a structure array which is a subset of Dat.standard, where the names contain any of the strings in C.
Note: in general you should store your data in the simplest array/structure possible. In this case nested structures do not make working with your data simpler, but actually make it more complicated. It might be worth considering if you could simplify the data organization somehow.
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