How to append Nested cell array to .csv file

Hi,

I need to write data from multiple text files, which of the format Nested cell, to a single .csv file. Is there a easy method to do it.

I have tried fwrite, writecell, writematrix nothing helped.

Regards

Karthik

[Voss]

Convert the nested cell array to something else, then write that to file.

To offer more specific advice, I'd need to see the actual nested cell array.

[Karthik]

Hi Voss,

Thank you for your response.

I have attached the .txt file here which need to be read and written in a new file. Issue is i have 5000 such files which needs be read and appended to one single file.

Regards,

Karthik Kumar

[Stephen23]

"Issue is i have 5000 such files which needs be read and appended to one single file."

Why is that an issue? Because you did not mention requiring any modifications to the file content the task should be easy: read the entire file as text (e.g. FILEREAD) and then write the content to a new text file (e.g. FPRINTF).

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/import_export/process-a-sequence-of-files.html

[Karthik]

Hi Stephen,

Was trying to read the frile from the network using uigetfile function and later read the file and write to a new file.

[file,location] = uigetfile('.txt','Choose TechLog Text File to load','P:\Transfix\Transfix Data finished units\DG900');

fid = fopen(strcat(location,file),'r');

out = fopen(fullfile('C:\Users\223086967\Desktop\Manufacturing_Projects\MATLAB Files', 'data.csv'), 'w');

Answer 1

[Hassaan]

@Karthik One of many possible approaches:

% Example nested cell array
nestedCell = {
    {1, 2, 3}, 'Text';
    4, {5, 'More Text'}
};

% Writing to CSV
writeNestedCellToCSV(nestedCell, 'output.csv');

function writeNestedCellToCSV(nestedCell, filename)
    % Flatten the nested cell array
    flatCell = flattenNestedCell(nestedCell);

    % Write the flattened cell array to a CSV file
    writecell(flatCell, filename);
end

function flatCell = flattenNestedCell(nestedCell)
    numRows = size(nestedCell, 1);
    flatCell = {}; % Initialize the output cell array
    maxCols = 0;

    % First, convert each row to a flat format and determine the maximum number of columns
    tempCell = cell(numRows, 1); % Store each flattened row temporarily
    for row = 1:numRows
        flatRow = [];
        for col = 1:size(nestedCell, 2)
            if iscell(nestedCell{row, col})
                % Flatten the inner cell by concatenating its contents
                flatRow = [flatRow, nestedCell{row, col}];
            else
                % Directly append the data
                flatRow = [flatRow, nestedCell{row, col}];
            end
        end
        tempCell{row} = flatRow;
        maxCols = max(maxCols, length(flatRow)); % Update the max columns found
    end

    % Now, ensure all rows have the same number of columns
    for row = 1:numRows
        currentLength = length(tempCell{row});
        if currentLength < maxCols
            % Pad with empty strings if less columns than the max
            tempCell{row}(currentLength + 1:maxCols) = {''};
        end
        flatCell = [flatCell; tempCell{row}]; % Append to the final cell array
    end
end

[Karthik]

Thank You Hassaan,

Tried with your code still im getting the error and not able to get data on file, my nested cell is of the below format with type cell

Answer 2

[Voss]

"I have attached the .txt file here which need to be read and written in a new file. Issue is i have 5000 such files which needs be read and appended to one single file."

This reads the files and writes all their contents into a single .txt file:

file_out = '.\combined.txt'; % absolute or relative path to the output file you want to create

F = dir('*.txt'); % modify '*.txt', if necessary, to have dir() return info about your 5000 text files

% read the files
names = fullfile({F.folder},{F.name});
for ii = 1:numel(F)
    F(ii).data = fileread(names{ii});
end

% write the output file
fid = fopen(file_out,'w');
fprintf(fid,'%s\n',F.data);
fclose(fid);

If you want to write a .csv file containing the contents of cell arrays like you show in this comment, then please share the code you used to create that cell array.