How to write a table with mixed values?

Hi All

how do I write a Table, that the first row is only string. in the next rows, the first column number, the second and third string, and the next ones number ?

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

You cannot do that with table() objects except by making everything string. You can define a Variable Description field for variables, but the description is only displayed if you use summarize(). table() objects are not designed for presentation purposes.

You also cannot do that with uitable() graphic objects except by making everything string. You can, though, define uitable ColumnName apart from the data values, which might be good enough for your purpose (do you just need the name displayed or do you need it to be stored with the table?)

[farzad]

Thank you Walter, well I want to write these data directly to Excel. but I wanted the numbers be written as numbers so they could be resuable later. at this moment, I don't need them to be related with UItable, it's only in the code and will be directly written down to Excel

[Walter Roberson]

outcell = [row_titles_cell; num2cell(NumericData)];
writecell(outcell, 'FileName.xlsx');

[farzad]

if I understood right,

num2cell(NumericData)

contains the second row where Numerical data can contain both numbers and strings?

[Walter Roberson]

sorry I forgot about the string columns.

table2cell() and use vertcat to put row of headers above it, then writecell. needs r2019b or later.

[farzad]

How could I do that in 2017b ?

[farzad]

dear Walter, i really need to write a table to Excel with changing headers ( there are numerical rows following each heeader) and also some string and numerical indexes. shall you please help me to see how to write it ? but in 2017b ? I need an example

[Walter Roberson]

T = your table that includes string columns
header = cell row array of character vectors with same number of columns as T

Tc = [header; table2cell(T)];
TT = cell2table(Tc, 'VariableNames', T.Properties.VariableNames);
writetable(TT, 'FileNameToWriteTo.xlsx');

Note: this would need some modification if any of the variables in the table have multiple columns.

[farzad]

thank you, I did not precisely get you. Shall you please indicate the code, for what I have in the question :

the first row is only string. in the next rows, the first column number, the second and third string, and the next ones number

[Walter Roberson]

%we need some example data for the purpose of illustration. Do not include
%this in your real program
col1 = randi(9,[5,1]);
col2 = {'hello'; 'how'; 'are'; 'you'; 'today'};
col3 = {'My'; 'favorite'; 'color'; 'is'; 'pizza!'};
col4 = -randi(9,[5 1]);
col5 = randi(9,[5 1]).^2;

%table_without_header is standing in for your existing table before the first
%row has been added. Use your own table instead!

table_without_header = table(col1,col2,col3,col4,col5);

%and this is the cell of strings to put on the column. Use your own
header = {'Quantity', 'Category', 'Description', 'Selling Price', 'Number Sold'};

%now we go to work. This part you copy, changing variable names as needed
Tc = [header; table2cell(table_without_header)];
table_with_header = cell2table(Tc, 'VariableNames', table_without_header.Properties.VariableNames);

%we now have a table like you described, with the first row being string,
%and otherwise the first column being numeric, and the second and third
%columns being string, and the remaining columns being numeric

%now that we have it, write it out
writetable(table_with_header, 'FileNameToWriteTo.xlsx');

Note: You might want to use

'writevariablenames', false

Also, be sure to delete the output file FileNameToWriteTo.xlsx before you run the test.