CODEWITHSUNDEEP
arraysmatlabstruct
Juan Gutiérrez
Juan Gutiérrez

Reputation: 5

How can I store data from two different cell arrays into one structure field in MATLAB

This is my first one:

Assume I have a struct

student_information=struct{'name','','surnames,''};

and two cell arrays 

possible_names=cell{'John','Amy','Paul'};
possible_surnames=cell{'Mitchell','Gordon','Maxwell'};

I need to fill the struct field 'name' with random names from the possible_names cell array which i figured:

for i=1:length(student_information)
 for j=1:length(possible_names);
 student_information(i).name=possible_names(randperm(j,1));
 end
end

But i need to fill the struct field 'surnames' with TWO random surnames (i.e "Gordon Maxwell") from the possible_surnames cell array... I tried a simmilar way to the method i used to fill the 'names' field but i didnt.

I really appreciate your help

Upvotes: 0

Views: 63

Answers (1)

rayryeng
rayryeng

Reputation: 104555

Your code doesn't make much sense TBH. You have a few syntax errors. Specifically:

student_information=struct{'name','','surnames,''};

'surnames' needs an ending quotation. This also only allocates one structure. Also, struct is a function yet you are trying to use it like a cell array. You probably meant this:

student_information=struct('name','','surnames','');

On top of this:

possible_names=cell{'John','Amy','Paul'};

possible_surnames=cell{'Mitchell','Gordon','Maxwell'};

This is invalid MATLAB syntax. cell is a function, yet you are trying to reference it as if it were a cell array. Do this instead:

possible_names={'John','Amy','Paul'};
possible_surnames={'Mitchell','Gordon','Maxwell'};

Now, back to your code. Judging from your context, you want to select two random names from possible_surnames and concatenate these into a single string. Use randperm but generate two choices instead of 1 like in your code. Next, you can cheat a bit by using sprintf and separating each name with a space:

possible_surnames={'Mitchell','Gordon','Maxwell'};
names = possible_surnames(randperm(numel(possible_surnames),2));
out = sprintf('%s ', names{:})

out =

Gordon Maxwell

As such, as you're populating your cell array, you can choose one random name from the possible_names array like so. First you need to allocate the structure properly with a given number of slots:

student_information=struct('name','','surnames','');
student_information=repmat(student_information, 5, 1); %// Make a 5 element structure

possible_names={'John','Amy','Paul'};
for idx = 1 : numel(student_information)
    student_information(idx).name = possible_names{randperm(numel(possible_names), 1)};
end

Now for the possible_surnames, do:

possible_surnames={'Mitchell','Gordon','Maxwell'};
for idx = 1 : numel(student_information)
    names = possible_surnames(randperm(numel(possible_surnames),2));
    student_information(idx).surnames = sprintf('%s ', names{:});
end

Let's see what this structure looks like now:

cellData = struct2cell(student_information);
fprintf('Name: %s. Surnames: %s\n', cellData{:})

Name: Paul. Surnames: Maxwell Gordon 
Name: Amy. Surnames: Mitchell Maxwell 
Name: Paul. Surnames: Mitchell Gordon 
Name: John. Surnames: Gordon Maxwell 
Name: John. Surnames: Gordon Mitchell

Upvotes: 1

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