how to sort a cell array which includes arrays?

Question

I would like to sort a cell array according to one of the columns. The array is created by textscan function. There are some answers on web, but I still cannot get it working. I have the following array:

>> DATA

DATA = 

    {303427x1 cell}    {303427x1 cell}    {303427x1 cell}    {303427x1 cell}    [303427x1 uint32]    [303427x1 double]    [303427x1 uint32]    [303427x1 int32]    {303427x1 cell}

Important is the sixth column, which are times converted by datenum function. I want to sort the whole DATA by this column but with the link to another columns. Normal sort or sortrows doesnt work for me. Could you help me please?

What was the original format of your date strings? Have you verified the datenum output is good? — reve_etrange
– reve_etrange, Commented Feb 6, 2012 at 23:21
format was YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS, the output of datenum is correct, I checked it. — user1193426
– user1193426, Commented Feb 7, 2012 at 10:28
You can mark an answer "accepted" by clicking the check mark icon to the left of the answer text. — reve_etrange
– reve_etrange, Commented Feb 8, 2012 at 2:20

reve_etrange · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-06 23:20:20Z

2

I take it you want to sort within each cell of DATA, correct? The datenum function produces serial time stamps since "year zero," so they can be sorted normally.

times = DATA{6};
[~,idx] = sort(times,'ascend');
for i=1:length(DATA)
    DATA{i} = DATA{i}(idx);
end

answered Feb 6, 2012 at 23:20

reve_etrange

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yuk · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-07 04:40:59Z

1

You can avoid for-loop in @reve_etrange's answer by using CELLFUN after you get the sorting index idx.

DATA = cellfun(@(x) x(idx), DATA, 'UniformOutput', false);

answered Feb 7, 2012 at 4:40

yuk

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5 Comments

reve_etrange Over a year ago

Just a note, cellfun does let you fit the code on one line, but it simply wraps the loop and adds a little overhead (it doesn't parallelize in any way). Ultimately just a style choice.

Andrey Rubshtein Over a year ago

@reve_etrange - check out stackoverflow.com/questions/8881735/…. cellfun can be much faster in some cases.

reve_etrange Over a year ago

@Andrey - Only with a predefined list of functions, which can be passed to cellfun as strings. See the "backwards compatibility" section of the documentation.

Andrey Rubshtein Over a year ago

@reve_etrange, thanks for the info! By the way, do you have any idea why the 'length' syntax faster than @length? (See the linked answer above).

user1193426 Over a year ago

both suggestion works for me, thanks to both of you. I cant compare what is better

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