Count the number of times a word appears?

So I have a mixed text and numerical document that is located in a table. In column A it describes text values (fish species surveyed), where a specific text can be repeated multiple times along the rows.

In column B, it describes a numerical value of how many times that fish was surveyed in that particular instance. But the fish can be seen again, with different numeric values next to it.

For example:

A:              B:
fishX           3
fishY           3
fishZ           2
fishX           2
fishX           2

So what I want to do is count the number of times Fish X, Y, Z has been surveyed overall, which I am finding difficult because they are two different mediums, across mulitple rows. It would require the code being able to go FishX=3+2+2.

This is all to count the most common Fish sighted in a survey.

Hope that makes sense

Answer 1

[Yazan]

A = {'fishX', 'fishY', 'fishZ', 'fishX', 'fishX'}';
B = [3 3 2 2 2]';

T = table(A, B);
groupsummary(T, "A", 'sum')

ans = 3×3 table
        A        GroupCount    sum_B
    _________    __________    _____

    {'fishX'}        3           7  
    {'fishY'}        1           3  
    {'fishZ'}        1           2  

Answer 2

[Simon Chan]

Use function readtable and groupsummary:

clear; clc;
A = readtable('demo.txt');
G = groupsummary(A,'A','sum');

A new column is generated which is the result.

G =
  3×3 table
        A        GroupCount    sum_B
    _________    __________    _____
    {'fishX'}        3           7  
    {'fishY'}        1           3  
    {'fishZ'}        1           2  

Answer 3

[KSSV]

A = {'fishX' ; 
'fishY' ;           
'fishZ' ;         
'fishX' ;        
'fishX' } ;
    
B = [3 ;   3 ;  2 ;  2 ;  2] 

idx = strcmp(A,'fishX') ;
iwant = sum(B(idx))