joining two matrices by column 1

How can I combine two matrices, say:

a = [29 315; 41 64; 42 130]
b = [29 260; 39 171; 41 430]

I need the following:

c = [29 315 260; 39 0 171; 41 64 430; 42 130 0]

Combine the first column from a and b to form the first column in c (no repeated values). Then add the corresponding second columns from a and b to the second and third in c (zero if no match).

I need to do this for a large dataset. I have no idea how to proceed.

[Bob Thompson]

I would suggest initializing an array of 0s first, just to make sure you don't have any uneven indices. I don't entirely know how to write the rest of it, but my guess would be some kind of loop, a few if statements, and using the isunique() logic to reduce any duplicate inputs.

Answer 1

[James Tursa]

A simplistic approach assuming 1st column numbers are sorted and do not repeat within each a and b variable:

c = unique([a(:,1);b(:,1)]);
c(ismember(c(:,1),b(:,1)),3) = b(:,2);
c(ismember(c(:,1),a(:,1)),2) = a(:,2);

If the simplistic assumptions above are not correct, then you would have to add code for sorting etc.

[Milan Lstiburek]

This solves it. I very appreciate your help on this.