How to extract only numerical values from cell into new column array?

For this data:

"chb12_06.edf"
"1665 seconds"
"1726 seconds"
"3415 seconds"
"3447 seconds"
"chb12_08.edf"
"1426 seconds"
"1439 seconds"
"1591 seconds"
"1614 seconds"
"1957 seconds"
"1977 seconds"
"2798 seconds"
"2824 seconds"
"chb12_09.edf"
"3082 seconds"
"3114 seconds"
"3503 seconds"
"3535 seconds"
"chb12_10.edf"
"593 seconds"
"625 seconds"
"811 seconds"
"856 seconds"

Whis is a column in a larger cell array. I want to extract just the seconds value after each edf file, and possibly put them in a new array or matrix, eg:

{"chb12_06.edf" "1665 seconds" "1726 seconds" "3415 seconds" "3447 seconds" ; "chb12_08.edf" "1426 seconds" "1439 seconds" "1591 seconds" "1614 seconds" "1957 seconds" "1977 seconds" "2798 seconds" "2824 seconds"...}

I hope this makes sense what I'm trying to achieve, if not please feel free to clarify, thanks!

Answer 1

[Bruno Luong]

s={"chb12_06.edf" "1665 seconds" "1726 seconds" "3415 seconds" "3447 seconds" "chb12_08.edf" "1426 seconds" "1439 seconds" "1591 seconds" "1614 seconds" "1957 seconds" "1977 seconds" "2798 seconds" "2824 seconds"};

sc = cellfun(@char,s,'Unif',0); %cast for regexp, which does not work on string input
sm = regexp(sc,'^\d* seconds','match');
[sm{:}]

[Z Liang]

Thank you! This works, but can you show me how to assign the seconds values to different coloumns if they are after a different .edf file?

For example:

Column 1: chb12_06.edf 1665 1726 3415 3447

Column 2: chb12_08.edf 1426 1439 1591 ... ...

[Bruno Luong]

s={"chb12_06.edf" "1665 seconds" "1726 seconds" "3415 seconds" "3447 seconds" "chb12_08.edf" "1426 seconds" "1439 seconds" "1591 seconds" "1614 seconds" "1957 seconds" "1977 seconds" "2798 seconds" "2824 seconds"};
sc = cellfun(@char,s,'Unif',0); %cast for regexp, which does not work on string input
sm = regexp(sc,'^\d* seconds','match','once');

isfile = cellfun('isempty',sm);
g = cumsum(isfile);

num = str2double(regexp(sm(~isfile),'^\d*','match','once'));
numc = splitapply(@(x) {x(:)}, num, g(~isfile));
% Pad so the cell subarrays have same row-length
nrows = max(cellfun('size',numc,1));
numc = cellfun(@(x) [x; nan(nrows-size(x,1),1)], numc, 'unif', 0);

% construct the table
colnames = strrep(cellfun(@string,sc(isfile)),".","_"); % colnames cannot have "."
T = table(numc{:});
T.Properties.VariableNames = colnames

[Z Liang]

thank you, I was able to test each line and everything worked for me!

it's very clever the use of isfile followed by cumsum, and I haven't seen splitapply used before, so in all I learned quite a few tools to help me with tasks in the future

cheers!

Answer 2

[Stephane Dauvillier]

Try this:

in=["chb12_06.edf"
"1665 seconds"
"1726 seconds"
"3415 seconds"
"3447 seconds"
"chb12_08.edf"
"1426 seconds"
"1439 seconds"
"1591 seconds"
"1614 seconds"
"1957 seconds"
"1977 seconds"
"2798 seconds"
"2824 seconds"
"chb12_09.edf"
"3082 seconds"
"3114 seconds"
"3503 seconds"
"3535 seconds"
"chb12_10.edf"
"593 seconds"
"625 seconds"
"811 seconds"
"856 seconds"]
notQuiteThat = regexp(in,"(\d+) second","once","tokens") % extarct only digits befor second
notQuiteThat = [notQuiteThat{:}] % delete empty candidate
theSeconds = str2double(notQuiteThat) % transform it into actual double value

[madhan ravi]

+1, note the data is a cell array not string array.

notQuiteThat = regexp(string(in),"(\d+) second","once","tokens")

As an alternative:

v=string(V); % V - data
sscanf(char(v(contains(v,'seconds'))),'%d seconds')

[Z Liang]

Thank you, this works! When I tried I noticed a difference between

"(\d+) second"

versus

"\d+ second"

in that the first works and gave me numbers, but the second just gave me empty cells; what does the parenthesis do in this instance?

Also, can you show me how to assign the seconds values to different coloumns if they are after a different .edf file?

For example:

Column 1: chb12_06.edf 1665 1726 3415 3447

Column 2: chb12_08.edf 1426 1439 1591 ... ...

[Stephen23]

"..what does the parenthesis do in this instance?"

Read about tokens in regular expressions:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/regexp.html

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/matlab_prog/regular-expressions.html