Reorder cell array based on unique string value

Dear Matlab users,

I'm stuck in my code and a help will be very much appreciated.

I have a 23×6 cell array containing string (it can be longer and larger)

Testmat = {'A' 'B' '' '' '' '';'A' 'B' '' '' '' '';'A' 'B' '' '' '' '';'A' 'B' '' '' '' '';'A' 'B' '' '' '' '';'A' 'B' '' '' '' '';'A' 'B' 'C' 'D' 'E' 'F';'A' 'B' 'C' 'D' 'E' 'F';'A' 'B' 'C' 'D' 'E' 'F';'A' 'B' 'C' 'D' 'E' 'F';'A' 'B' 'C' 'D' 'E' 'F';'A' 'B' 'C' 'D' 'E' 'F';'A' 'B' 'C' 'D' 'E' 'F';'B' 'C' 'E' '' '' '';'B' 'C' 'E' '' '' '';'B' 'C' 'E' '' '' '';'B' 'C' 'E' '' '' '';'B' 'C' 'E' '' '' '';'B' 'C' 'E' '' '' '';'B' 'C' 'E' '' '' '';'C' 'D' '' '' '' '';'C' 'D' '' '' '' '';'C' 'D' '' '' '' ''}

Each string variable are in positions 1:size(Testmat,2) (followed by empty cells if numel(unique(Testmat(:,1)))<size(Testmat,2) )

Each string variable (A, B, C, etc..) are associated (in the same position) to a {300x1 double} cell in another 23×6 cell array (doublemat).

Do you have a elegant way to reorder/sort Testmat to have a unique variable (A,B,C etc..) in each column and get their location (to reorder doublemat as well?). At the end I would like to have all the 'A' in column 1, 'B' in column 2 etc with a corresponding matrix containing all locations.

Something like this:

'A' 'B' '' '' '' ''

...

'A' 'B' '' '' '' ''

'A' 'B' 'C' 'D' 'E' 'F'

...

'A' 'B' 'C' 'D' 'E' 'F'

'' 'B' 'C' '' 'E' ''

...

'' 'B' 'C' '' 'E' ''

'' '' 'C' 'D' '' ''

'' '' 'C' 'D' '' ''

Thank you in advance for your help !

Answer 1

[Clayton Gotberg]

If you want to find which of the rows of your string array contain specific values, you can use this:

% This can also be generated by finding the unique characters in Testmat
fieldNames = {'A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E', 'F'};

for i = 1:size(fieldNames,2) % For each value in fieldNames
    nameExists = any(strcmp(Testmat(:,:),fieldNames{i})')'; % Mark that value as present if
    % it appears anywhere in the row
    resultingMatrix(:,i) = char(nameExists.*double(fieldNames{i})); % Make a char matrix with 
    % fieldNames{i} where it appears and spaces otherwise.
end

[Ben]

Thank you very much !!

I was far from the solution !

And it also works if numel(fieldNames) > size(Testmat,2) so thank you again very much !