Loop to a specific point in data set

I have a function used to loop through a data set and I want it to stop once the data reaches a specific threshold (In this case, the failure displacement value 'fdValue'. However, I keep getting the error for the if statement:

 Undefined function 'ge' for input arguments of type 'cell'.

I think 'cellfun' can be used in this case but I'm not sure how to use it. Any Suggestions? Below is the function

totalRect = 0;
for j = 2:length(bridgeDisp) 
    %Calculations
    rectangle1 = (bridgeDisp(j, 1) - bridgeDisp(j-1, 1))*((bridgeLoad(j, 1) + bridgeLoad(j-1, 1))/2);
    totalRect = totalRect + rectangle1;
    %If statment error
    if bridgeDisp(j, 1) >= fdValue
       break;
    end
end

[per isakson]

What does

whos fdValue

show?

[Guillaume]

I think it's clear that fdValue is a cell array since it can't be bridgeDisp (otherwise the error would be on the rectangle1 line).

Why is fdValue a cell array? Can we see how fdValue is created?

[Anas Abou Allaban]

Its supposed to be a variable of type double, its an input from a user

   Name          Size            Bytes  Class    Attributes
    fdValue     1x1               118  cell

I just added

fdValue = str2double(fdValue);

in my main function and that let it loop through...I'm guessing thats the solution. Unless you had another suggestion?

[Anas Abou Allaban]

fdValue = inputdlg('text');

Thats how it was created, I just noticed that inputdlg does not conver to string and that why I added

str2double

Answer 1

[per isakson]

Why is fdValue a cell array in the first place?

I assume the cell array contains a numerical scalar. If so replace

bridgeDisp(j, 1) >= fdValue

by

bridgeDisp(j, 1) >= fdValue{1}

or maybe by

bridgeDisp(j, 1) >= str2double(fdValue{1})

if the cell arrays contains a string

[Anas Abou Allaban]

Since fdValue was made like this:

 fdValue = inputdlg('text'):

So I added i converted it to double by adding on the next line

 fdValue = str2double(fdValue);

and that fixed it

[per isakson]

Note that not all functions take a cell array of a string in place of a string, as does str2double. Excerpt of documentation

X = str2double(C) converts the strings in the cell array of strings C to double precision.

However, str2num does not!

>> str2double({'17'})
ans =
    17
>> str2num({'17'})
Error using str2num (line 33)
Requires string or character array input.