Error using horzcat. CAT arguments dimensions are not consistent.

Dear all,

Using the next function, I get the error mentioned:

function [Y]=descriptiveStats( X )
M={};
N=[];
M={'mean','sem','numel','std','var','min','max'}.';
[mean,sem,numel,std,var,min,max]=grpstats(X,[],{'mean','sem','numel','std','var','min','max'});
N=[mean,sem,numel,std,var,min,max].';
Y=[M,N];
xlswrite('df.xlsx',Y)
end

The results displayed in the command window look like this:

>> dFStats = descriptiveStats(decodeFemale);
size(M)
     7     1

size(N)
     7     1

M
    'mean'
    'sem'
    'numel'
    'std'
    'var'
    'min'
    'max'

N
    1.7802
    0.0935
  186.0000
    1.2749
    1.6254
         0
    4.7137

Error using horzcat
CAT arguments dimensions are not consistent.

Error in descriptiveStats (line 20)
Y=[M,N];

However, if I use an additional argument gname that displays a character I don't get the aforementioned error:

function [Y]=descriptiveStats( X )
M={};
N=[];
M={'mean','sem','numel','gname','std','var','min','max'}.';
[mean,sem,numel,gname,std,var,min,max]=grpstats(X,[],{'mean','sem','numel','gname','std','var','min','max'});
N=[mean,sem,numel,gname,std,var,min,max].';
Y=[M,N];
xlswrite('df.xlsx',Y)
end

And this are the results printed in the command window:

>> dFStats = descriptiveStats(decodeFemale);
size(M)
     8     1

size(N)
     8     1

M
    'mean'
    'sem'
    'numel'
    'gname'
    'std'
    'var'
    'min'
    'max'

N
    [1.7802]
    [0.0935]
    [   186]
    '1'     
    [1.2749]
    [1.6254]
    [     0]
    [4.7137]

It's not a big deal to have to use the gname argument in order to avoid the error, but I don't understand why it is happening.

Can somebody explain what's the cause and how to fix it?

Regards,

Diego

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

Easy. Without the gname argument, what is being returned is a simple 7 x 1 numeric array, which would occupy at most one cell entry rather than the 7 you would need in order to match the 7 x 1 cell array of strings you constructed in M. But when you use gname, it needs to return a string as part of the output and so cannot just return a numeric array, so it returns a cell array of the right size for you to match with M.

Solution:

[M, num2cell(N)]

[Diego]

Thank you very much Walter.

Best Regards,

Diego

Answer 2

[Vishal Rane]

Check the data type of N in both cases.

Answer 3

[Ganesh K Davanagege]

I have the same problem with horzcat. I tried num2cell. But, it is not working. Can anybody help me.

clc
clear all
filename = 'testdata.xlsx';
timeVariable=ones(1,10)
timeVariable = timeVariable'
tempVariable = 10*rand(1,10)
tempVariable = tempVariable'
% A = {'Time','Temperature'; 12,98; 13,99; 14,97};
a = horzcat(timeVariable, tempVariable);

A = {'Time','Temperature'; [timeVariable, tempVariable]};
% A = {'Time','Temperature'; a}; % I tried this also. 
sheet = 1;
xlRange = 'E1'; 
xlswrite(filename,A,sheet,xlRange)

[Walter Roberson]

A = {'Time','Temperature'; timeVariable, tempVariable};

[Ganesh K Davanagege]

Thank you Walter Roberson..! It is working.