Sorting columns by header names

Hi,

I have a table with mess up data location like this.

I want to bring all the same Columns letters together. I am wondering if there is an easy way to do this?

I have try to impliment bubble sort as follow but running into some compare text problem

function [table_out] = sort_text(table_in)
    table_size = size(table_in(1,:)); % table size
    for i = 1:table_size(2)
        for j = 1:table_size(2)
            if strcmp(char(table_in.Properties.VariableNames(j)), char(table_in.Properties.VariableNames(j+1))) == 1
                table_in = swap(table_in(j),table_in(j+1));
            end
        end
    end
end

Answer 1

[the cyclist]

% Make up a data table
N = 3;
Column_B_data1 = rand(N,1);
Column_A_data1 = rand(N,1);
Column_C_data2 = rand(N,1);
Column_D_data2 = rand(N,1);
Column_A_data2 = rand(N,1);
Column_B_data2 = rand(N,1);
Column_D_data1 = rand(N,1);
tbl = table(Column_B_data1,Column_A_data1,Column_C_data2,Column_D_data2,Column_A_data2,Column_B_data2,Column_D_data1)

tbl = 3×7 table
    Column_B_data1    Column_A_data1    Column_C_data2    Column_D_data2    Column_A_data2    Column_B_data2    Column_D_data1
    ______________    ______________    ______________    ______________    ______________    ______________    ______________

       0.017808          0.33524            0.3062           0.85413            0.57774          0.39403           0.70176    
        0.33161          0.21866            0.8892           0.66124            0.79637          0.24335           0.79331    
        0.41375          0.58761           0.32401           0.25822           0.038418          0.80929           0.77397    

% Find the sorting order
[~,sortingIndex] = sort(tbl.Properties.VariableNames);

% Sort into a new table
new_tbl = tbl(:,sortingIndex)

new_tbl = 3×7 table
    Column_A_data1    Column_A_data2    Column_B_data1    Column_B_data2    Column_C_data2    Column_D_data1    Column_D_data2
    ______________    ______________    ______________    ______________    ______________    ______________    ______________

       0.33524            0.57774          0.017808          0.39403            0.3062           0.70176           0.85413    
       0.21866            0.79637           0.33161          0.24335            0.8892           0.79331           0.66124    
       0.58761           0.038418           0.41375          0.80929           0.32401           0.77397           0.25822    

Answer 2

[Bruno Luong]

A=rand(10,1);
B=rand(10,1);
Z=rand(10,1);
T=table(Z,B,A)

T = 10×3 table
       Z           B           A   
    ________    ________    _______

     0.74455      0.3744    0.84735
     0.23491     0.77743    0.16809
     0.17916     0.86516    0.61983
    0.076788    0.096141    0.54182
    0.098915     0.89129    0.72997
     0.23829     0.58839    0.73499
     0.69243     0.57171    0.38707
     0.26114     0.32184     0.6048
    0.016699     0.15426    0.38407
     0.14351     0.84739    0.57648

[~,is]=sort(T.Properties.VariableNames);
T = T(:,is)

T = 10×3 table
       A          B           Z    
    _______    ________    ________

    0.84735      0.3744     0.74455
    0.16809     0.77743     0.23491
    0.61983     0.86516     0.17916
    0.54182    0.096141    0.076788
    0.72997     0.89129    0.098915
    0.73499     0.58839     0.23829
    0.38707     0.57171     0.69243
     0.6048     0.32184     0.26114
    0.38407     0.15426    0.016699
    0.57648     0.84739     0.14351

[Steven Lord]

If your table had a mostly-sorted set of variables and you only need to move one or two variables, the movevars function may be of use instead of indexing.

A=rand(10,1);
B=rand(10,1);
Z=rand(10,1);
T=table(A, Z, B)

T = 10×3 table
       A           Z           B   
    ________    ________    _______

     0.74294     0.23125    0.56058
     0.25209     0.96923    0.85752
     0.92007     0.76815    0.59707
     0.23497    0.083857    0.39342
     0.31552     0.89183    0.94034
     0.92638     0.31848    0.65163
     0.35944      0.8189    0.44748
     0.59282     0.54002    0.39289
    0.027912     0.78539     0.2909
     0.37218     0.69359    0.28342

In release R2023a and later, you can move a variable to the end by calling movevars with two inputs. For prior releases you could specify 'After' and tell MATLAB to move the variable after the last variable using the output of width on the table.

T2 = movevars(T, "Z") % Move Z to the end

T2 = 10×3 table
       A           B          Z    
    ________    _______    ________

     0.74294    0.56058     0.23125
     0.25209    0.85752     0.96923
     0.92007    0.59707     0.76815
     0.23497    0.39342    0.083857
     0.31552    0.94034     0.89183
     0.92638    0.65163     0.31848
     0.35944    0.44748      0.8189
     0.59282    0.39289     0.54002
    0.027912     0.2909     0.78539
     0.37218    0.28342     0.69359

T3 = movevars(T, "Z", "After", width(T))

T3 = 10×3 table
       A           B          Z    
    ________    _______    ________

     0.74294    0.56058     0.23125
     0.25209    0.85752     0.96923
     0.92007    0.59707     0.76815
     0.23497    0.39342    0.083857
     0.31552    0.94034     0.89183
     0.92638    0.65163     0.31848
     0.35944    0.44748      0.8189
     0.59282    0.39289     0.54002
    0.027912     0.2909     0.78539
     0.37218    0.28342     0.69359

Or if you're adding table variables incrementally, you could use addvars to add the new variable in a particular location.

C = (1:height(T2)).';
T4 = addvars(T2, C, 'After', "B")

T4 = 10×4 table
       A           B       C        Z    
    ________    _______    __    ________

     0.74294    0.56058     1     0.23125
     0.25209    0.85752     2     0.96923
     0.92007    0.59707     3     0.76815
     0.23497    0.39342     4    0.083857
     0.31552    0.94034     5     0.89183
     0.92638    0.65163     6     0.31848
     0.35944    0.44748     7      0.8189
     0.59282    0.39289     8     0.54002
    0.027912     0.2909     9     0.78539
     0.37218    0.28342    10     0.69359