Sort a Cell array with empty elements in Matlab

Question

I have a cell array in Matlab DataVal which I would like to sort. Some of the elements in the array are empty. Any idea how to sort the elements of this cell array. When sorted, I would prefer, the empty elements at the beginning or the end of the sorted array.

DataVal

ans = 

    []
    [ 82.1000]
    [ 16.1500]
    [ 56.0200]
    []
    [ 74.9600]
    [ 35.1400]

I used sort and sortrows. Both these commands seem to ignore the empty elements.

Thanks

Amro Amro · Accepted Answer · 2013-09-18T14:26:08

How about this:

x = {
    []
    [ 82.1000]
    [ 16.1500]
    [ 56.0200]
    []
    [ 74.9600]
    [ 35.1400]
};

x_sorted = [cell(sum(cellfun(@isempty,x)),1) ; num2cell(sort(cell2mat(x)))]

The result:

x_sorted = 
    []
    []
    [16.15]
    [35.14]
    [56.02]
    [74.96]
    [ 82.1]

We first convert the cell array into a vector of values, sort them, then put them back as a cell array. Finally we add the original number of empty cells back at the beginning, since cell2mat ignores them in this case.

Sort a Cell array with empty elements in Matlab

1 Answers