# MATLAB Tips and Tricks: Exploiting the comma-separated list: Vectorizing cell array and structure references

By Clay M. Thompson, MathWorks

Have you ever found yourself wondering if it was possible to vectorize an expression that involved a structure or cell array? It is possible to vectorize some algorithms if you can take advantage of a comma-separated list. The comma-separated list syntax described below can be used to vectorize the following common operations:

• Concatenating conforming elements of a cell array into a single array (via [ ] or cat)
• Converting between cell arrays and structure arrays or assigning multiple elements of a structure array at once (via deal and { })
• Indexing into an N-D array with N subscripts without knowing N ahead of time (see fftshift for an example)
• Passing on variable arguments (in conjunction with varargin or varargout)

If your algorithm fits one of these categories, you can operate on the whole cell array or structure at once. Since the speed that an M-file takes is usually proportional to the number of lines of code executed, using the comma-separated list syntax can speed up your M-files.

### The comma-separated list

The comma-separated list has been part of MATLAB from the beginning. In its simplest form, it is a list of statements separated by commas as in

x =    1:10, x, x(2)
x =    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
ans =  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
ans =  2


Normally these statements would be placed on separate lines but you can put them all on one line by separating the statements with commas. Note that ans is displayed multiple times as each statement is evaluated.

A comma-separated list can be used in five situations:

• to combine multiple statements—a,b,c,d
• inside [ ] for horizontal concatenation—[a,b,c,d]
• inside { } to create a cell array—{a,b,c,d}
• inside ( )for indexing and function input arguments—test(a,b)
• inside [ ] for function output arguments—[v,d] = eig(a)

All of these situations work with the comma-separated list syntax for cell arrays and structures.

### The comma-separated list syntax

The comma-separated list syntax is an extension of the syntax used to index into a cell array or structure and retrieve its contents. When you ask for more than one element, a comma-separated list is produced. For instance, suppose

strs = {'This' 'is' 'an' example'};


then

strs{4}
ans =    example


and by indexing into more than one element at a time

strs{1:4}
ans =
This
ans =
is
ans =
an
ans =
example


you get a comma-separated list. It is as if you typed

>> strs{1},strs{2},strs{3},strs{4}


Note that MATLAB displays the value of ans multiple times, just like it did in the original comma-separated list expression. Any number of subscripts can be used. For example, C{:,1} is a comma-separated list if C has more than one row.

A comma-separated list is produced for a structure array when you access one field from multiple structure elements at a time. For instance if S is a 5-by-1 structure array then S.name is a five-element comma-separated list of the contents of the name field.

Published 1998