remove row with matching string

I'm trying to eliminate an entire row of data if a string is found in the cell array.

Sample array values:

myarray = 

   [ 16]    '10/05/2011'    '11:20'    'waiting'    'nopos'    [ 10000]   
   [ 17]    '10/05/2011'    '11:25'    'open'        'long'      [     0]   
   [ 34]    '10/05/2011'    '12:50'    'open'       'short'      [     0]

so i'd like to have:

my array = 
   [ 17]    '10/05/2011'    '11:25'    'open'        'long'      [     0]   
   [ 34]    '10/05/2011'    '12:50'    'open'       'short'      [     0]

there can be several occurances in the array, I'm not looking to pop the top row...

you help is greatly appreciated

[Image Analyst]

So which element in the cell array are you checking for the string? In column 4 or column 5, or something else.

Answer 1

[Jan]

array(strcmp(array(:, 4), 'waiting'), :) = [];

Answer 2

[Richard Brown]

If it can occur anywhere, use cellfun to test for equality:

[I, ~] = find(cellfun(@(s) isequal(s, 'waiting'), myarray));
myarray(I, :) = [];

otherwise, you can pull out the column of interest and use ismember

I = ismember(myarray(:, 4), 'waiting')
myarray(I, :) = [];

[Jan]

There is no need to omit a trailing output: I=FIND() looks easier than [I, ~]=FIND().

ISMEMBER performs a time-consuming sorting of the data.

[Richard Brown]

(sorry for dup comment - commented on the wrong answer by accident with my mobile!)

There is a big difference between find with one output, and find with two outputs. I is only to contain the rows, not linear indices.

Not certain I believe you re ismember here - the array to be searched has only one entry. I might check when I'm next in front of a computer. At any rate, you're right that strcmp is more conventional.

[Richard Brown]

And yes, just checked - for a cell array vector of 100000 strings, on my computer strcmp takes 0.01 seconds, whereas ismember takes 0.03 :)

[Jan]

0.02 seconds lost. But if you do this 10e6 times... :-)

I've overseen, that your FIND command operates on a matrix. Then the 2nd omitted output does matter, as you have written.