Viewing Elements of Cell Array Data :: Using Functions in the Database Toolbox (Database Toolbox)

Database Toolbox

Viewing Elements of Cell Array Data

In these examples, the curs.Data notation is not used and instead the examples assume you assigned curs.Data to a variable. If you do not assign curs.Data to a variable, then just substitute curs.Data for the variable name in the examples.

This example is the same as that in Exporting Data from MATLAB to a New Record in a Database, but the DataReturnFormat is set to cellarray.

A = 
    [32.3800]
    [11.6100]
    [65.8300]

Viewing a Single Element as a Numeric Value

To view the first element of A, type

```
A(1,1)
```

MATLAB returns

```
ans = 
    [32.3800]
```

The brackets result is not numeric but instead is an element in a cell array. You cannot perform numeric operations on cell array data.

To retrieve the first element as a numeric value, enclose it in curly braces. For example, type

```
A{1,1}
```

MATLAB returns

```
ans = 
    32.3800
```

This result is numeric and, therefore, you can perform numeric operations on it.

Viewing an Entire Column or Row as a Numeric Vector

To retrieve the data in an entire column or row of a cell array as a numeric vector, use colons within the curly braces. You then assign the results to a matrix by enclosing them in square brackets. For example, to retrieve all the data in column 1, type

```
AA=[A{:,1}]'
```

MATLAB returns

```
AA =
   32.3800
   11.6100
   65.8300
```

You can also retrieve the contents using the celldisp function. For example, type

```
celldisp(A)
```

MATLAB returns

A{1} =
    32.3800

A{2} =
    11.6100

A{3} =
    65.8300

Working with Cell Arrays in MATLAB Performing Functions on Cell Array Data