how to find cell array intersection

i have cell array

y [1x4] [1x5] [1x6]

if have to find out common elements among

y{1}&y{2} y{1}& y{3} y{2}&y{3]

how can I use the intersect function to do it

[James Tursa]

Please provide a small example showing the input and desired output, giving a clear description of the complete rules involved for getting the output.

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

[I, J] = ndgrid(1:length(y));
result = arrayfun(@(tI,tJ) intersect(y{tI}, y{tJ}), I, J 'uniform', 0);

The result will be a symmetric cell array. Each pair would have been evaluated twice. Depending on the size of the array, avoiding the double evaluation could end up slower.

leny = length(y);
result = cell(leny-1, leny-1);
for J = 1 : leny - 1
  for K = J+1 : leny
   result{J,K-1} = intersect(y{J}, y{K});
  end
end

This will give a cell array of results with the diagonal deleted and the entries below the diagonal left empty.