MATLAB: Replace column in cell array with NaN

Question

I have a 3x2 cell array data where each cell contains a double matrix. It looks something like this:

{600x4 double} {600x4x3 double}
{600x4 double} {600x4x3 double}
{600x4 double} {600x4x3 double}

Now, I would like to replace the second column of the cell array with NaNs. The result should therefore look like this:

{600x4 double} {[NaN]}
{600x4 double} {[NaN]}
{600x4 double} {[NaN]}

Using curly braces is leading nowhere.

data{:,2} = nan
Expected one output from a curly brace or dot indexing expression, but there were 3 results.

I think I could use cellfun or a simple for-loop to change the values to NaN. However, I would like to know if there's a more simple solution?

Wolfie · Accepted Answer · 2019-01-31 14:33:18Z

3

You can use this

data(:,2) = {NaN};

Logic:

% Assign all values in the 2nd column of the cell ...
% All elements should be the single cell {NaN};

You can alternatively do this (slightly clearer logic)

data(:,2) = repmat( {NaN}, size(data,1), 1 ); % Right hand side is same height as data

Or even this!

data(:,2) = num2cell( NaN(size(data,1), 1 ) );

answered Jan 31, 2019 at 14:33

Wolfie

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3 Comments

Also [data{:,2}] = deal(NaN)

@Wolfie Your first suggestion is straight forward. Actually very easy ;-) Thanks.

@Luis damn I couldn't get that one to click, I was missing the deal!