Reading a CSV file with XLSread, convert raw data to strings

How do I convert this cell array to a char array (obtained by reading in from a csv file using xlsread and the "raw" argument

    A = 

        [ 1]
        [ 2]
        [ 3]
        'Y' 
        [ 5]
        [ 6]
        [ 7]
        'Y' 
        'X' 
        [ 9]
        [10]

I need to output this to a text file and have used:

for row = 1:numel(A)

      fprintf(fileID,'%s\n',A{row});
  end

but I get strange characters:

Answer 1

[Stephen23]

Given a cell array of mixed numeric and string data:

>> A = {1;2;3;'Y';5;6;7;'Y';'X';9;10};

convert to a cell array of strings using cellfun and num2str (which ignores the strings):

>> B = cellfun(@num2str,A, 'UniformOutput',false)
B = 
  '1'
  '2'
  '3'
  'Y'
  '5'
  '6'
  '7'
  'Y'
  'X'
  '9'
  '10'

And convert a cell array of strings to a pure character array by wrapping this in char:

>> char(B)
ans =
1 
2 
3 
Y 
5 
6 
7 
Y 
X 
9 
10

[Jason]

Just so I understand, this line:

cellfun(@num2str,A, 'UniformOutput',false)

will just convert the numbers to strings, leaving the strings alone? Thanks

[Guillaume]

cellfun calls the function you give it (in this case num2str) passing it in turn each element of the input cell array(s). It collects the output(s) of the function in a cell array the same shape as the input, if you pass it 'UniformOutput', false (or an plain array otherwise).

It is equivalent to writing a for loop over each element of the cell array and calling num2str within the loop, except you don't have to predeclare the output, nor do you have to worry about finding the bounds of the loop.

In this case, the line is equivalent to:

B = cell(size(A));
for idx = 1:numel(A)
   B{idx} = num2str(A{idx});
end

[Jason]

Thankyou