how to extract data from structure efficiently

Hi

I have this structure with sometimes allot of A_scans:

>> Data.CH1
ans = 
           name: 'CH1'
          Props: [1x1 struct]
      A_scan1_1: [1x1 struct]
      A_scan1_2: [1x1 struct]
      A_scan1_3: [1x1 struct]
      A_scan1_4: [1x1 struct]
      A_scan1_5: [1x1 struct]
      ...

Where ecach scans has a "data" variable, that I want to put in a matrix row by row:

Data.CH1.A_scan1_1
ans = 
     name: 'A_scan1_1'
    Props: [1x1 struct]
     data: [1x31990 int16]

What is the most efficient way of extracting the "data" arrays into a matrix? I guess i could do a forloop but I have a feeling there might be a faster way?

[Stephen23]

It really depends on what you are doing:

• if you are generating the structure Data, then you should follow Walter Roberson's suggestion and use a non-scalar structure to store the data. This would be the optimal solution, and it would be trivial to access the data inside the structure.
• if Data is being provided to you then unfortunately this not a very convenient format to process without loops: even if it could be possible without a loop, a loop may well be the clearest code.

[MnM]

the data comes from a tdms file.

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

The more efficient way to extract it efficiently is to use a single A_scan1 that is indexed -- a struct array. Then you could do something like horzcat(A_scan1.data)