MATLAB: Structure indexing: Convert cell to string without trailing spaces

cell string array conversion

Hi all,
I am looking for some help on how one converts cells to string arrays without all the trailing space. I am sure I am making things too complex. What I am doing in short, is setting up a function that returns spectral indices based on literature-published indices. The basic information for each index will be stored in a structure, which eventually I might make a separate file.
If a user wants all the indices, rather than asking them to provide all the indices by name, I will allow a key word 'all'. At that point, I take the fieldnames of the structure to give me the fieldnames to use. This is where things go wrong, as the fieldnames are in cells. I have tried
indice_names  = fieldnames(indices_specs);
indice_names  = char(indice_names);
But then all the strings have trailing spaces. I can probably trim those again, but.. Is there a more straightforward way to go about this?
To give you some insight, this is what I am working on debugging (And no, none of the function calls to JF_calculate_vegetation_index work yet. The function itself does not even have content yet):
function out_indices = jf_calculate_vegetation_indices(spectra, offset, indice_names)
  % Matlab:       2015b
  % Purpose 
  % Calculate well-known hyperspectral indices vegatation indices 
  % 
  % Parameters
  % "Spectra"      Input spectra in in an array, colums individual spectra, rows: samples
  % "offset"      The first wavelength of the spectrum. 1nm spacings are expected
  % "indices"       The name of the indices to be calculated in an array. 
                    %Use a string "all" for all indices to be returned. 
    %%get all set up 
    num_indices        = max(size(indice_names));
    [num_samples,num_bands]  = size(spectra);
    wavelengths       = [offset:offset+num_bands];
    %%create an structure that specifies all the info needed for each index in the setup
    indices_specs.GI     = struct('type', 'ri', 'bands',   [554,677], ...
      'name', 'GI',       'fullname', 'Green index', 'author', 'smith', 'year', '1995');
    indices_specs.ZTM     = struct('type', 'ri', 'bands',   [750, 710], ...
    'name', 'ZTM',      'fullname', 'Zarco-Tejada & Miller', 'author', 'Zarco-Tejeda', 'year', '2001');
    indices_specs.PSSRa   = struct('type', 'ri', 'bands',   [800,806],   ...
    'name', 'PSSRa',  'fullname', 'Pigment specific simple ratio a', 'author', 'blackburn', 'year', '1998');
    indices_specs.PSSRb   = struct('type', 'ri', 'bands',   [800,635], ...
      'name', 'PSSRb',  'fullname', 'Pigment specific simple ratio b', 'author', 'blackburn', 'year', '1998');
    % Check whether the key word "all" was set for the indices. Then create a
    % list of name labels from the structure
    if(indice_names == 'all')
      indice_names  = fieldnames(indices_specs)'
      num_indices   = max(size(indice_names));
    end
   %%run the indices_specs
      for i=1:num_indices
        if(indices_specs.(indice_names(i)).type == 'other')
        
          out_indices.(indice_names(i)).name = indice_names(i);
          out_indices.(indice_names(i)).data = JF_calculate_vegetation_index(indices_specs.(indice_names(i)).type, spectra, indices_specs.(indice_names(i)).name);
      
      else
          out_indices.(indice_names(i)).name = indice_names(i);
          out_indices.(indice_names(i)).data = JF_calculate_vegetation_index(indices_specs.(indice_names(i)).type, spectra(:,indices_specs.(indice_names(i)).bands));
      end
      
      end
    end

Best Answer

    if strcmp(indice_names, 'all')
      indice_names  = fieldnames(indices_specs);
    else
      indice_names = cellstr(indice_names);
    end
    num_indices   = length(indice_names);
   %%run the indices_specs
      for i=1:num_indices
        thisname = incides_names{i};
        if strcmp(indices_specs.(thisname).type, 'other')
        
          out_indices.(thisname).name = thisname;
          out_indices.(thisname).data = JF_calculate_vegetation_index(indices_specs.(thisname).type, spectra, indices_specs.(thisname).name);
      
      else
          out_indices.(thisname).name = thisname;
          out_indices.(thisname).data = JF_calculate_vegetation_index(indices_specs.(thisname).type, spectra(:,indices_specs.(thisname).bands));
      end
      
      end
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