Dimension error using VERTCAT, but pretty sure dimensions are consistent

rawdata is a numeric matrix (size 2500x136 double)

text is a string matrix (size 2x136)

Text matrix contains the labels I want to add to the rawdata matrix. I double-checked the variable dimensions by using the size( ) function. Help?!?

error message:

    Error using vertcat
    Dimensions of matrices being concatenated are not consistent.
    Error in openfile (line 25)
    labeled_data=[text; rawdata];

code:

    %read the text file
    fileID=fopen('Master_inventory.txt');
    inventory=textread('Master_inventory.txt', '%s'       ...
                     , 'delimiter', '\n', 'whitespace', '');
    % search for directory
    c = cellstr(inventory);
    filedesired = 'M29AA216afc01c1asfh_0000.3LA';
    indx = regexpcell(c,filedesired);
    %retrieve directory
    pat = inventory(indx);
    path = cellstr(pat);
    %open file
    raw=path{1};
    rawdata=load(raw);
    %add column labels
    filename = 'DC_labels.xls';
    [data, text] = xlsread(filename,'A1:EF2');
    text = cellstr(text);
    labeled_data=[text; rawdata];

Answer 1

[Kelly Kearney]

When you try to concatenate the cell array ( text ) with a numeric array ( rawdata ), the numeric array is treated as a single cell, so you end up trying to concatenate a 2 x 136 cell array with a 1 x 1 cell array. Hence the error.

Instead:

labeled_data = [text; num2cell(rawdata)];

A few other tips

text = cellstr(text)

should be unnecessary, since xlsread already returns a cell array of strings. Also, using text as a variable name isn't a great idea, since it overshadows the text function (for plotting text).

[Zeke Merchant]

Worked wonderfully! Thank you very much Kelly!!

Answer 2

[dpb]

...rawdata is a numeric matrix...text is a string matrix...

Text matrix contains the labels I want to add to the rawdata matrix. ...

labeled_data=[text; rawdata];

Can't mix numeric and character data in a single array; can only use a cell array as a container for the two types as separate cells.

There's no need to have them both in the same array, anyway, what is your end objective?

There is the newer table object that does keep a set of labels with it, check the doc's for details on it. Perhaps that's what you're looking for.

[Zeke Merchant]

Applying this code to a GUI. GUI inputs are data specs like subject ID, displacement, data type, and trial number. GUI searches inventory of data, retrieves data, adds column labels, and renames the data as 'dataname_edited'