Sorting a cell array

Hello, I have the following cell(data, 1x3):

data = [data{1} data{2} data{3}]
data{1}   data{2}    data{3}
A         15         1400
A          3          250
B         10         1100
C         13         1350
B          7          600

Now I would like to sort the data and make a new cell as follows:

newcell = [newcell{1} newcell{2} newcell{3}]
  newcell{1}    newcell{2}      newcell{3}
  A             [15; 3]         [1400; 250]
  B             [10; 7]         [1100; 600]
  C             [13]            [1350]

In other words, I want to sort and save the data of a cell with respect to A, B and C. Would you please show me how to do that with or without using for loop etc?

Thanks in advance.

[Geoff Hayes]

Yongmin - why don't you want to use a for loop?

[Yongmin]

I guess the problem can be solved without the loop. If we find idx matrix describing the elements for A, B, and C, can we use the idx matrix for sorting data{2} and data{3}? But I don't know how to do it exactly.

If we use a for loop, would you please explain how to do it?

Thanks for your comment.

Answer 1

[Guillaume]

data = {'A' 15 1400; 'A' 3 250; 'B' 10 1100; 'C' 13 1350; 'B' 7 600}

[header, ~, row] = unique(data(:, 1));
catcol = @(col) arrayfun(@(r) [data{r == row, col}], 1:numel(header), 'UniformOutput', false)';
newcell = [header, catcol(2), catcol(3)]

would be one way to do it without a loop. It could be made even more generic with an additional arrayfun looping over the columns, but at this point, you'd be better off using a for loop to make it clearer.

[Yongmin]

Thanks a lot for your explanation.

It seems to be too difficult to read. I agree with your opinion.

Would you please show your suggested code using for loop?

[Guillaume]

[header, ~, row] = unique(data(:, 1));
newcell = [header, cell(numel(header), size(data, 2)-1)];
for r = 1:numel(header)
  for c = 2:size(data, 2)
     newcell{r, c} = [data{r == row, c}];
  end
end

[Yongmin]

Thanks a lot for your kind answer. It will help to develop codes for my problem.