Check if combination of field values exists in a MATLAB cell array of structs

Question

Suppose I have a cell array containing structs, each with 3 fields.

When I encounter a new struct, I would like to check whether the values in 2 of its 3 fields match those of any struct elements in the array.

cell_array = cell(4,1)
cell_array{1}.Field1 = "ABC"
cell_array{1}.Field2 = 46
cell_array{1}.Field3 = 1648

% Would like to check if fields 1 and 2 match 
% any struct in cell_array
new_struct.Field1 = "ABC"
new_struct.Field2 = 46
new_struct.field3 = 1765

Thank you.

If your structs all contain the same fields, you should consider using a struct array instead of a cell array of scalar structs. You then index as s(1).Field1. This is more memory-efficient, less error prone, and quite a bit easier to work with. — Cris Luengo
– Cris Luengo, Commented Sep 30, 2018 at 15:23

matiastofteby · Accepted Answer · 2018-09-30 09:32:47Z

3

You should use Matlab's intersect command. It finds similarities in between two lists of any sort and returns those similarities.

Should then be as simple as:

cell_array = {'ABC', '46', '1648'};

new_array = {'ABC', '46', '1765'};
[C,~,~] = intersect(cell_array,new_array)

disp(C) % C = {'ABC'} {'46'}; 2x1 cell array

% Then simply checking the length of C
if length(C) >= 2
   % Perform your task
end

edited Sep 30, 2018 at 9:32

answered Sep 30, 2018 at 8:21

matiastofteby

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4 Comments

MJV Over a year ago

I'm getting an error when I try to run the intersect call, "Input A of class cell and input B of class struct must be cell arrays of character vectors, unless one is a character vector." Is there some issue with the contents of the cell arrays expressed above?

matiastofteby Over a year ago

I have updated the way the cell arrays are declared. :=) Unfortunately I do not have access to Matlab from here, but this should work.

MJV Over a year ago

Thanks for the feedback. The updated code works as long as the cell contains strings. The challenge I've got is that each element of my cell array is a struct, not a string. And inside those structs are both string and numerical fields. It's those fields that I need to check against.

matiastofteby Over a year ago

Ah I see. I misunderstood the question a bit. In that case i would iterate through the elements of each struct using a for-loop and then using the isequal() method instead to evaluate each pair of elements. I can update my answer a bit later to do this.

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