Finding strings in a 21 x 1 cell array.

I have a cell array that looks like this:newsequence =
'CGT'
'GAC'
'AGT'
'CCT'
'CTC'
'CTT'
'TAC'
'CGA'
'AAG'
'GGA'
'AGA'
'ATA'
'AAA'
'GTG'
'GCG'
'TGA'
'TGC'
'ATT'
'ACG'
'CCT'
'GCA'
I am interested in finding the location of 'TAC'. When I use this function: found=strfind(newsequence,'TAC'); I end up with a cell array with all zeros and a 1 in the 7th row. I want it to display a 7 because that is the location of 'TAC', but I can't seem to figure it out.

 Accepted Answer

newsequence = {'CGT'
'GAC'
'AGT'
'CCT'
'CTC'
'CTT'
'TAC'
'CGA'
'AAG'
'GGA'
'AGA'
'ATA'
'AAA'
'GTG'
'GCG'
'TGA'
'TGC'
'ATT'
'ACG'
'CCT'
'GCA'};
mask=strcmpi(newsequence ,'TAC');
rows=find(mask)
rows =
7
or you could combine both command in one as:
rows=find( strcmpi(newsequence ,'TAC') )

More Answers (2)

The function is returning a logical array of row indices. To convert it to a numerical value for the actual row number of every matching row, add a call to the find function:
found = find(strfind(newsequence,'TAC'));
I didn’t specifically test this, but it should work.

2 Comments

Undefined function 'find' for input arguments of type 'cell'.
I tried this already. :(
This looks tortured, but it works:
found = (strfind(newsequence,'TAC'));
found = find(cell2mat(cellfun(@(x)~isempty(x), found, 'Uni',0)))
found =
7

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Try ismember(). Here I'm using CCT to show what happens if you have the string in more than one row:
ca = {'CGT'
'GAC'
'AGT'
'CCT'
'CTC'
'CTT'
'TAC'
'CGA'
'AAG'
'GGA'
'AGA'
'ATA'
'AAA'
'GTG'
'GCG'
'TGA'
'TGC'
'ATT'
'ACG'
'CCT'
'GCA'}
[ia, ib] = ismember(ca, 'CCT')
rows = find(ia)

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