MATLAB: How to sort a table by category within column

MATLABsortrowstable

I have a table with 11 columns and 59 unnamed rows. I can sort the rows alphabetically, ascending, descending, increasing, decreasing, etc. by using

Sort_Table = sortrows(Table_Name,'variable_name');

How can I sort a table by a category within a column in a way that is not alphabetical? For example, the column is a list of countries (so that several rows have the same country name) and I wish to list first the rows with a certain country that is neither alphabetically first or last. I've tried

Sort_Table = sortrows(Table_Name,'variable_name','variable_value');

as well as

Sort_Table = sortrows(Table_Name,'variable_name',{variable_value});

but neither provided the results I desired. Some help would be appreciated!

Best Answer

See https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/365457-order-of-categorical-variables-on-an-axis-in-scatter-plot#answer_289789

Related Solutions

MATLAB: How to Sort a Table by Columns

In MATLAB R2016b, there is a way to sort the variable names (column names) using the sort function. Note that the following example will only work as expected on tables where all variables have variable names defined:

% Load sample data available in MATLAB and create a table
load patients
T = table(Weight, Height, Smoker, Gender);

To exclude the first variable name (column name) from the sorting:

sortedNames = sort(T.Properties.VariableNames(2:end));
T2 = [T(:,1) T(:,sortedNames)]

To include all variable names in the sorting:

T3 = T(:,sort(T.Properties.VariableNames))

MATLAB: How to sortrows by specific strings

desired_order = {'President','Vice President','Member','Guest'};
Position = {'Vice President';'Guest';'Member';'President'};
Name = {'John';'Jane';'Nancy';'Bob'};

Turn the Position variable into a categorical array whose order matters (the array is an ordinal array.) The ordering is given by the desired_order list.

ranks = categorical(Position, desired_order, 'ordinal', true)
ranks = 4×1 categorical array
     Vice President 
     Guest 
     Member 
     President

Store the data in a table array.

results = table(ranks, Name, 'VariableNames', ["Rank", "Name"])
results = 4x2 table
         Rank           Name   
    ______________    _________

    Vice President    {'John' }
    Guest             {'Jane' }
    Member            {'Nancy'}
    President         {'Bob'  }

Sort the table by Rank (taking advantage of the fact that it is ordinal.)

results = sortrows(results, "Rank")
results = 4x2 table
         Rank           Name   
    ______________    _________

    President         {'Bob'  }
    Vice President    {'John' }
    Member            {'Nancy'}
    Guest             {'Jane' }

Who's the Member?

results{results.Rank == 'Member', 'Name'}
ans = 1x1 cell array
    {'Nancy'}

Best Answer

Related Solutions

MATLAB: How to Sort a Table by Columns

MATLAB: How to sortrows by specific strings

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