Convert a cell array into matrix, but with just removing the commas (Need words to stay)

Okay, so it turns out that I need to keep 'known' and 'free', but I can't seem to get this to work out for me. I'm still filtering through the same NF_array (which can be changed based on user input), but now I'm trying to keep the known and free in the matrix. Below is what I'm trying to do... Thanks for the help.

NF_array = [{'1, known, known, 0.0, 0.0'}, ...
    {'8, known, known, 0.0, 0.0'}, ...
    {'4, free, known, 0.0, 0.0' }, ...
    {'5, free, known, 0.0, 0.0' }];

%Code I'm trying to use
syms known free  %defining known and free in the program
NF_array = S(NF_2:NL_2);
optf = {'Delimiter',',', 'CollectOutput',true};
fmtf = '%f%s%s%f%f';
strf = sprintf('%s\n',NF_array{:});
outf = textscan(strf,fmtf,optf{:});
Nodal_Fixity = outf{1};
Nodal_Fixity = sortrows(Nodal_Fixity)

%What I'm getting... So I need columns 2:5 to populate still
Nodal_Fixity =

     1
     4
     5
     8

%(Need the code to process NF_array and convert to)%
Nodal_Fixity =
[ 1, known, known, 0, 0]
[ 4,  known, known, 0, 0]
[ 5,  free, known, 0, 0]
[ 8,  free, known, 0, 0]

[Stephen23]

Earlier questions:

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/509614-convert-a-cell-array-into-matrix-but-with-removing-the-words-commas

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/508449-convert-cell-array-into-matrix-but-with-removing-the-words-commas-etc

[Damon Schmidt]

I just added what I've been trying. I took out the * in the %*s to stop skipping over the 'known' and 'free', but the final output still isn't populating the way I'm trying to get it.

Answer 1

[the cyclist]

NF_array = [{'1, known, known, 0.0, 0.0'}, ...
    {'8, known, known, 0.0, 0.0'}, ...
    {'4, free, known, 0.0, 0.0' }, ...
    {'5, free, known, 0.0, 0.0' }];

Nodal_Fixity = cell(4,5);

for nr = 1:4
    Nodal_Fixity(nr,:) = strsplit(NF_array{nr},',');
end

If you also need to remove the spaces, then follow that with

Nodal_Fixity = regexprep(Nodal_Fixity,' ','');

That does not need to be inside the loop; it will operate on the entire cell array.

[Damon Schmidt]

Is there a way to convert the 4x5 cell array output into a matrix? I need it to be a matrix for later in the script I'm writing.

Nodal_Fixity =

  4x5 cell array

    {'1'}    {'known'}    {'known'}    {'0.0'}    {'0.0'}
    {'8'}    {'known'}    {'known'}    {'0.0'}    {'0.0'}
    {'4'}    {'free' }    {'known'}    {'0.0'}    {'0.0'}
    {'5'}    {'free' }    {'known'}    {'0.0'}    {'0.0'}

    
%(Trying to convert it into this)
syms known free
Nodal_Fixity = [1, known, known, 0, 0;...
    4,  known, known, 0, 0;...
    5,  free, known, 0, 0;...
    8,  free, known, 0, 0];

[the cyclist]

A matrix is numeric type. It cannot hold character data. You could convert the numeric columns of Nodal_Fixity to a matrix, stored separately from the characters.

str2double(Nodal_Fixity(:,[1 4 5]))

[Damon Schmidt]

I was able to tweak my loop to account for the result being a cell array. Thanks again for the help.

[Stephen23]

Note:

• importing/storing numeric data as character/string and then converting it to numeric afterwards is going to be less efficient than importing it as numeric in the first place.
• Storing numeric data as scalar arrays in a cell array is much less efficient than storing it in a simple numeric array.