how to compare 2 or more cell arrays?

Hi, i have 2 cells(cell1 and cell2) of size 628*1 and 244*1 respectively, and i want to compare the elements of cell 1 with the elements of cell 2 and return only the matched ones from cell1 and delete the rests

 cell1{k,1}={' *tcaa-a6-2677*';'tcca-a6-2681';' *tcca-aa-3566*';............};
 %
 cell2{k,1}={'TCCA-A6-2671-11A-01R-1758-07';' *TCCA-A6-2677*-11A-01R-0826-07';'TCCA-AA-3520-11A-01R-0721-07'; 'TCCA-AA-3528-11A-01R-1758-07'; *TCCA-AA-3566*-01A-01R-0125-07';.................}

Hints: i tried strncmpi and length, but because of size issue i get confused about which Command statement is better in my case.

Answer 1

[Stephen23]

After removing the asterisks, space characters, and fixing the first element of C1, this seems to do the job:

 >> C1 = {'tcca-a6-2677';'tcca-a6-2681';'tcca-aa-3566'};
 >> C2 = {'TCCA-A6-2671-11A-01R-1758-07';'TCCA-A6-2677-11A-01R-0826-07';'TCCA-AA-3520-11A-01R-0721-07';'TCCA-AA-3528-11A-01R-1758-07';'TCCA-AA-3566-01A-01R-0125-07'};
 >> fun = @(s)any(strncmpi(s,C2,numel(s)));
 >> out = C1(cellfun(fun,C1))
 out =
   'tcca-a6-2677'
   'tcca-aa-3566'

[chocho]

Hi Stephen Cobeldick, i got this Error:

Error using strncmpi

Inputs must be the same size or either one can be a scalar.

Error in @(s)any(strncmpi(s,D2,numel(s)))

Error in common_Patients (line 15) out = UD1(cellfun(fun,UD1));

Actually i want to use a loop instead but i don't know how to figure out this idea

[Stephen23]

@chocho: do the cell arrays contain nested cell arrays?

I am happy to help you but guessing exactly how your data is arranged will just waste everyone's time. Please make a comment and upload your data by clicking the paperclip button.

[chocho]

then i tried your command and others like intersect ,strcmp and == but no result

[chocho]

here are the 2 cells

[Stephen23]

>> fun = @(s)any(strncmpi(s,expl,numel(s)));
>> out = Vpl(cellfun(fun,Vpl))
out =
  'tcga-a6-2677'
  'tcga-a6-2682'
  'tcga-aa-3516'
  'tcga-aa-3520'
  'tcga-aa-3521'
  'tcga-aa-3522'
  'tcga-aa-3524'
  'tcga-aa-3525'
  'tcga-aa-3527'
  'tcga-aa-3530'
  'tcga-aa-3531'
  'tcga-aa-3543'
  etc

Out of the 244 strings in expl, 229 can be matched to some string in Vpl. Is that what you expect?

[chocho]

Great!

sorry if i bother you, may be i didn't state clearly the problem

Appreciate your help

[JR]

Awesome. Thanks Stephen, I had no idea about function handles using @ command.

[Bharath Sagar]

Hello,

I have a similar need. I have 2 cells(cell1 and cell2) of size 72*1 and 110*1 respectively, and i want to compare the elements of cell 1 with the elements of cell 2 and return only the matched ones from cell1 and delete the rest.

The above mentioned solution is not working for me.

Can you please help me out with this ?

Answer 2

[KSSV]

cell1 = {'apple' 'boy' 'cat' 'dog' 'elephant'} ;
cell2 = {'apple' 'ball' 'cut' 'dog' 'egg' 'frog' 'gun'} ;

iwant = intersect(cell1,cell2) ;

[chocho]

No doesn't work ,return an empty cell

[KSSV]

You got empty cell with the above example? Or with your data?

[chocho]

with my data

[KSSV]

Well it is because of different letter cases and text completely different. You see from cell1 you got tcaa-a6-2677 and cell2 you got TCCA-A6-2671-11A-01R-1758-07 only a part is in match. You have all strings like this or there would be an exact strings?

[chocho]

yes exactly as you see

all the strings like this and i just post an example but 244*1 and 628*1 cells format same as i post .

because i put them in an column vector so i'm finding it difficult to make a comparison between them

[KSSV]

Are you okay if a part matches? I mean tcaa-a6-2677 and TCCA-A6-2671-11A-01R-1758-07 are same?

[chocho]

not same only the 3 first parts if they match then ok if not then delete

tcaa-a6-2677 and TCCA-A6-2677-11A-01R-0826-07

you can see in this example the bold parts are match

but in tcaa-a6-2677 and TCCA-A6-2671-11A-01R-1758-07 there is no match (even tcca-a6- match with TCCA-A6 but 2677 and 2671 not), so no match

[chocho]

i think you match element by element but i want to check every element in cell1 with all the elements in cell 2.

[chocho]

 cell1{k,1}={' *tcaa-a6-2677*';'tcca-a6-2681';' *tcca-aa-3566*';............};
 %
 cell2{k,1}={'TCCA-A6-2671-11A-01R-1758-07';' *TCCA-A6-2677*-11A-01R-0826-07';'TCCA-AA-3520-11A-01R-0721-07'; 'TCCA-AA-3528-11A-01R-1758-07'; *TCCA-AA-3566*-01A-01R-0125-07';.................}

in this example elements 1 & 3 of cell 1 are match with the elements 2 & 5 of cell2