MATLAB: How to split cells in an array and save data into a bigger cell array

Question

Hi,

I have a cell array of 20×1, with each cell containing information that I need to split up in 10 strings. How to I make a new array of 20×10, containing all the information?

arr = {'hello i welcome you';'what is your name';'nice to meet you'};

output = { 'hello','i','welcome','you';'what','is','your','name';'nice','to','meet','you'};

I tried the following:

for i = 1:size(arr,1)
    intercept = char(arr(i,:));
    newarr{i,:} = strsplit(intercept,' ');
end

But this just leaves me with a 20×1 cell array, containing 20 1×10 cell arrays.

Thanks guys!!

Answer 1

Use a comma-separated list to help concatenate them into one cell array or string array:

>> arr = {'hello i welcome you';'what is your name';'nice to meet you'};
>> out = regexp(arr,'\w+','match');
>> out = [out{:}]; % comma-separated list
>> size(out)
ans =
    1   12

Checking the contents:

>> out{:}
ans = hello
ans = i
ans = welcome
ans = you
ans = what
ans = is
ans = your
ans = name
ans = nice
ans = to
ans = meet
ans = you

See also:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/matlab_prog/comma-separated-lists.html

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/320713-how-to-operate-on-comma-separated-lists