Extracting specific words from cells within a table column and moving them to new column

Hello! :)

I have a table with multiple columns, whereby one of the columns includes text.

The column looks somewhat like that. Please note that there are way more rows, and I want to address all of them with the code and not just the ones presented here.

'New Scene was loaded: CastleDown'
'Game is trying to save file'
'Saving successful.'		
'New Game File created successfully.'
'New Scene was loaded: Outside'
'Periodic Save...'
'Coin collected'
...
    

What I would like to do is to split only those rows who contain the text "New Scene was loaded: XY", whereby I want to extract the last word, such as "CastleDown" or "Outside" and move it to a new column.

So it should look somewhat like that:

'New Scene was loaded:'                     'CastleDown'
'Game is trying to save file'               ''
'Saving successful.'		                ''
'New Game File created successfully.'       ''
'New Scene was loaded: Outside'             'Outside'
'Periodic Save...'                          ''
'Coin collected'                            ''
...                                         ...
    

Then, I would also like to enter the text extracted and move to the other column to also fill the empty rows below (until the next word), looking like that:

'New Scene was loaded:'                     'CastleDown'
'Game is trying to save file'               'CastleDown'
'Saving successful.'		                'CastleDown'
'New Game File created successfully.'       'CastleDown'
'New Scene was loaded: Outside'             'Outside'
'Periodic Save...'                          'Outside'
'Coin collected'                            'Outside'
...                                         ...
    

I'm not sure if that makes sense, but I appreciate any help regarding that matter!! Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

[Voss]

t = table({ ...
    'New Scene was loaded: CastleDown'; ...
    'Game is trying to save file'; ...
    'Saving successful.'; ...
    'New Game File created successfully.'; ...
    'New Scene was loaded: Outside'; ...
    'Periodic Save...'; ...
    'Coin collected'; ...
    },'VariableNames',{'Status'})

t = 7×1 table
                    Status                 
    _______________________________________

    {'New Scene was loaded: CastleDown'   }
    {'Game is trying to save file'        }
    {'Saving successful.'                 }
    {'New Game File created successfully.'}
    {'New Scene was loaded: Outside'      }
    {'Periodic Save...'                   }
    {'Coin collected'                     }

is_new = startsWith(t.Status,'New Scene was loaded:');
C = split(t.Status(is_new),':')

C = 2×2 cell array
    {'New Scene was loaded'}    {' CastleDown'}
    {'New Scene was loaded'}    {' Outside'   }

t.Status(is_new) = strcat(C(:,1),':')

t = 7×1 table
                    Status                 
    _______________________________________

    {'New Scene was loaded:'              }
    {'Game is trying to save file'        }
    {'Saving successful.'                 }
    {'New Game File created successfully.'}
    {'New Scene was loaded:'              }
    {'Periodic Save...'                   }
    {'Coin collected'                     }

scene_name = repmat({''},height(t),1);
scene_name(is_new) = strtrim(C(:,2));
scene_name = fillmissing(scene_name,'previous');
t.Scene = scene_name

t = 7×2 table
                    Status                         Scene     
    _______________________________________    ______________

    {'New Scene was loaded:'              }    {'CastleDown'}
    {'Game is trying to save file'        }    {'CastleDown'}
    {'Saving successful.'                 }    {'CastleDown'}
    {'New Game File created successfully.'}    {'CastleDown'}
    {'New Scene was loaded:'              }    {'Outside'   }
    {'Periodic Save...'                   }    {'Outside'   }
    {'Coin collected'                     }    {'Outside'   }

[greenyellow22]

Great code, thanks!

[Voss]

You're welcome!

Answer 2

[Campion Loong]

Good code indeed. This is almost the same code, but you could go deeper into string with missing handling in the Data Preprocessing ecosystem.

Simply:

t = table([ ...
"New Scene was loaded: CastleDown"; ...
"Game is trying to save file"; ...
"Saving successful."; ...
"New Game File created successfully."; ...
"New Scene was loaded: Outside"; ...
"Periodic Save..."; ...
"Coin collected"] ...
,'VariableNames',"Status");

t.Scence = extractAfter(t.Status,"New Scene was loaded: ");
t.Scence = fillmissing(t.Scence,'previous');
t.Status(startsWith(t.Status,"New Scene was loaded:")) = "New Scence was loaded:"

t = 7×2 table
                   Status                       Scence   
    _____________________________________    ____________

    "New Scence was loaded:"                 "CastleDown"
    "Game is trying to save file"            "CastleDown"
    "Saving successful."                     "CastleDown"
    "New Game File created successfully."    "CastleDown"
    "New Scence was loaded:"                 "Outside"   
    "Periodic Save..."                       "Outside"   
    "Coin collected"                         "Outside"