For loop stores all zeros then the actual values of last iteration

Hello,

Whenever i try to run my code, it only saves the last values of the loop and all others are saved as zeros so im left with 165 x 243 array that only has the last column with the actual values that I need to use while everything else is a zero.

The first sections of my code are me processing the data to remove bad quality values, i have tested this part on some indiviudal files in the folder that the code is looping through and it works perfectly fine, so the problem must lie in the last part of the loop that is supposed to store the iteration values.

I'm still a beginner so sorry if this is unclear/dumb question, thanks!

dir_to_search = '/Users/..../3302'; 
folder = dir('*.txt');
n = length(folder);
k = 0;
for i = 1:length(folder) 
    filename = fullfile(dir_to_search, folder(i).name);
    k = k + 1;
    file = readtable(filename);
    % extracting the raw data and qc flags
    sm = file(5:end,8);
    temp = file(5:end,9);
    qc = file(5:end,end);
    data = [sm,temp,qc];
    data_daily = table2array(data);
    % temp qc part
    index = data_daily(:,2) < 4;
    a = data_daily(:,1);
    a(index) = NaN;
    data_daily = a;
    b = array2table(a);
    x = [b,qc]; 
    x = table2array(x);
    % flag qc part
    indx = x(:,2) > 0; 
    x(indx) = NaN;
    % trying to store the values (WHERE THE PROBLEM IS)
    finalsm = zeros(height(x),1); % 'height(x)' bc array changes size each iteration
    soilm = x(:,1);
    finalsm(:,k) = soilm;
end

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

Your statement

    finalsm = zeros(height(x),1); % 'height(x)' bc array changes size each iteration

is throwing away all previous output.

If your output can be different sizes for different iterations then use a cell array:

Before the loop:

    finalsm = cell(length(folder), 1);
    

Inside the loop, do not assign zeros to finalsm, and change

finalsm(:,k) = soilm;

to

finalsm{k} = soilm;

[Claire]

That worked perfect, thank you so much!!