advanced sorting of cell array of strings

I have the following array that I sorted in descending order (natural sort using sortn.m)

 files = [
   'a_20_15rpm_05.txt'
   'a_20_14rpm_05.txt'
   'a_20_12rpm_50.txt'
   'a_20_12rpm_10.txt'
   'a_20_12rpm_05.txt'
   'a_20_5rpm_05.txt'
   'a_20_4rpm_50.txt'
   'a_20_4rpm_05.txt'
   'a_20_2rpm_05.txt']

Here is what I need: the elements with equal rpms (index 3, 4 and 5 as well as 7 and 8) need to be sorted in ascending order. The final array should have the following form

files = [
 'a_20_15rpm_05.txt'
 'a_20_14rpm_05.txt'
 'a_20_12rpm_05.txt'
 'a_20_12rpm_10.txt'
 'a_20_12rpm_50.txt'
 'a_20_5rpm_05.txt'
 'a_20_4rpm_05.txt'
 'a_20_4rpm_50.txt'
 'a_20_2rpm_05.txt']

I'd really appreciate some help on this. Thanks a lot for your answers in advance.

[Azzi Abdelmalek]

where are index 4 ,5 , 7 and 8?

Answer 1

[Oleg Komarov]

Your sample input:

files = {
   'a_20_15rpm_05.txt'
   'a_20_14rpm_05.txt'
   'a_20_12rpm_50.txt'
   'a_20_12rpm_10.txt'
   'a_20_12rpm_05.txt'
   'a_20_5rpm_05.txt'
   'a_20_4rpm_50.txt'
   'a_20_4rpm_05.txt'
   'a_20_2rpm_05.txt'}

% Match the second and third group of digits (it would be nice to see more elegant ways to do that)

out = regexp(files, '(a_20_|rpm_|.txt)','split');

% Convert numeric strings to numbers and "unpack"

out = cell2mat(cellfun(@(x) str2double(x(:,2:3)),out,'un',0));

% Sort

[trash,idx] = sortrows(out,[-1,2]);
files(idx)

Answer 2

[Andrei Bobrov]

k = regexp(files,'((?<=a_20_)\d*)|((?<=rpm_)\d*)','match');
[ii,ii] = sortrows(str2double(cat(1,k{:})),[-1 2]);
files(ii)

[Eldhose Poulose]

This Works for me. THANK YOU Andrei.

k= regexp(allNames,'((?<=out_)\d*)|((?<=_TRUE1_))','match'); % d* is for the varying variable, for example, 1 2 3 4 5 ...so on

[~,ii]= sortrows(str2double(cat(1,k{:}))); % [-1 2] is for ascending descending try with and without this

allNames= allNames(ii);

Answer 3

[Kilian]

thanks a lot for all your help. this worked fine.

[Sean de Wolski]

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