Delete duplicate rows from large cell array

I have a cell array of the structure 1 x 35 then 1 x 8. This hold data for 35 years and the 8 columns of the 1 x 8 array hold data in various formats eg:

'2000-01-10 1:00' 'HCM' '268' '20' '260' '2345' '0' '90'

However, the data has come with duplicates like this:

'2000-01-10 1:00' 'HCM' '268' '20' '260' '2345' '0' '90'
'2000-01-10 1:00' 'HCM' '268' '20' '260' '2345' '0' '90'
'2000-01-10 2:00' 'HCM' '268' '14' '210' '645' '3' '12'
'2000-01-10 2:00' 'HCM' '268' '14' '210' '645' '3' '12'
'2000-01-10 3:00' 'HCM' '268' '02' '230' '345' '2' '40'
'2000-01-10 3:00' 'HCM' '268' '02' '230' '345' '2' '40'

As chronological order is very important, I would like to remove corresponding duplicate rows (based on the first time col, if my file was name X, the time col would be X{1,1}{1,1}) from each array without changing the order to get something like this:

'2000-01-10 1:00' 'HCM' '268' '20' '260' '2345' '0' '90'
'2000-01-10 2:00' 'HCM' '268' '14' '210' '645' '3' '12'
'2000-01-10 3:00' 'HCM' '268' '02' '230' '345' '2' '40'

Big help if you can help me. I have tried many too may options!

Answer 1

[Azzi Abdelmalek]

A={'2000-01-10 1:00' 'HCM' '268' '20' '260' '2345' '0' '90'
'2000-01-10 1:00' 'HCM' '268' '20' '260' '2345' '0' '90'
'2000-01-10 2:00' 'HCM' '268' '14' '210' '645' '3' '12'
'2000-01-10 2:00' 'HCM' '268' '14' '210' '645' '3' '12'
'2000-01-10 3:00' 'HCM' '268' '02' '230' '345' '2' '40'
'2000-01-10 3:00' 'HCM' '268' '02' '230' '345' '2' '40'}

[ii,jj]=unique(arrayfun(@(x) strjoin(A(x,:)),(1:size(A,1))','un',0))
out=A(jj,:)

[mashtine]

Hey, Thanks for the reply!

I am having some trouble working this with my cell array. If I were to look only at my time array, that is HWData{1,1}{1,1} and I am not too sure how to implement that with your code nor star's own.

Thanks for the patience haha

[Azzi Abdelmalek]

What do you mean?

[mashtine]

You used A in your example so if A was structured like my cell array it would a 1 x 35 with 1 x 8 arrays where A{1,1}{1,1} would be the array containing the time data (2000-01 ...). I do not know how to implement that with your code.

[Azzi Abdelmalek]

I'am not following you, post a sample of your data

[mashtine]

I do not have access to it right now but if I could try and explain again (bare with me sorry) the time col is within a 1 x 8 cell array. So because my matlab lingo is not the best in simple terms, when I double click on my file from the workspace, I see a row that contains 35 1x8 cell arrays and when I click on the first cell array, I get a row with 8 more cell arrays (the cols of data I showed above and each has about a mil rows of data and 1 col, eg: the time column)

[mashtine]

Maybe this can help. I have my HWData as a 1x2 for testing but its is usually a 1x35

[mashtine]

I am also getting this error with the code:

??? Undefined function or method 'strjoin' for input arguments of type 'cell'.

Error in ==> @(x)strjoin(A{x,:})

Perhaps my version is too old. Even when I try your code, matlab is giving me a strjoin error.

[Aurelien Queffurust]

strjoin requires MATLAB R2014a or above