Convert numbers to strings in a cell array in MATLAB

string matlab type-conversion cell-array
Maddy picture Maddy · Feb 25, 2013 · Viewed 12.7k times · Source

I have a cell array with numbers and string data. I need to convert the numbers to strings so that I can use the unique() function. 

a = {1; 4; 'lf'}
result --> {'1', '4', 'lf'}; % Now unique() function can be used

There are online solutions to handle a case where the column was numerical. But those cannot be used here as at least 1 row has string as data. A vectorized solution shall be appreciated.

Answer

gevang picture gevang · Feb 25, 2013

Use cellfun() for applying num2str() to every cell element: 

result = cellfun(@num2str, a, 'UniformOutput', false)

This (with UniformOutput set to false) will automatically handle the non-scalar, char elements of the array.

Related questions

How to concat string + i?

for i=1:N f(i) = 'f'+i; end gives an error in MatLab. What's the correct syntax to initialize an array with N strings of the pattern fi? It seems like even this is not working: for i=1:4 f(i) = …

Read More
How to search for a string in cell array in MATLAB?

Let's say I have the cell array strs = {'HA' 'KU' 'LA' 'MA' 'TATA'} What should I do if I want to find the index of 'KU'?

Read More
how to convert a cell to string in matlab

Suppose I have a cell v = 'v' [576.5818] [3.0286] [576.9270] 'v' [576.5953] [3.1180] [576.8716] 'f' [ 56] [ 58] [ 52] 'f' [ 56] [ 58] [ 52] and I want to convert this to a cell array using a format string for each element:' %.5f' How can I do this? I tried the following approach, but …

Read More