delete columns of empty elements of a cell

Hello! I have a cell like this:

empty_elem = [];
A = {'5','11',empty_elem,empty_elem;'99','169','188',empty_elem;'250','258','267',empty_elem};

I want to delete the column consisting of null elements and transform the cell like this:

A = {'5','11',empty_elem;'99','169','188';'250','258','267'};

I would need code that can do this also considering that:

• It may happen to have multiple null columns (and not just one).
• Null columns are always found at the end (inside the cell).

I tried this way, but it deletes columns that I don't want to be deleted:

empty_elem = [];
A = {'5','11',empty_elem,empty_elem;'99','169','188',empty_elem;'250','258','267',empty_elem};
A(:, any(cellfun(@isempty, A), 1)) = [];

Answer 1

[Mayur]

Hi Alberto!

I understand that some extra columns are also getting deleted using the above command. You can instead use the following code snippet to achieve the desired functionality:

empty_elem = [];
A = {'5','11',empty_elem,empty_elem;'99','169','188',empty_elem;'250','258','267',empty_elem};
A(:, all(cellfun(@isempty, A), 1)) = [];
disp(A);

    {'5'  }    {'11' }    {0×0 double}
    {'99' }    {'169'}    {'188'     }
    {'250'}    {'258'}    {'267'     }

Using any deletes a column having at least one null value, whereas using all deletes those columns having all the values as null.

You can read more about all here: https://in.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/all.html