readtable and strcmp returning 0 all the time

I am comparing a string that is in my excel csv file that I read in matlab using readtable because it has numbers and strings with special characters in it.

I set my string: Str = 'var'

keep in mind in readtable in the excel sheet there's no ' ' around the string but readtable inserts it.

now I am trying to compare my string to what's in readtable an it keeps returning 0 when it should be 1.

The data in the table always display the header, may that be the reason why it never matches the string? How can I fix it?

fid = readtable('filename')

C = zeros(1,size(fid,1));

Str = 'var';

for k = 1: 10

      tf=strcmp(fid(k,28), Str ) ;

      if tf == 1

          C(k) = Yes;

      else

          C(k) = No;
      end

end

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

The basic problem that you are having is that fid(k,28) is a table not the contents stored at that location. You need fid{k,28} to get the contents.

A shorter version of your code would be to remove the for loop and

vals = [No, Yes];
C(1:10) = vals( 1 + strcmp(fid{1:10,28}, Str) );

If No is 0 and Yes is 1 then

C(1:10) = strcmp(fid{1:10,28}, Str);

[Mini Me]

Excellent answer Walter, but is that 2 diff ways of doing it you showing or do I need both to get my answer?

[Walter Roberson]

Those are two different ways. The second single-line version is appropriate only in the case where No == 0 and Yes == 1.

[Peter Perkins]

Without meaning to muddy the waters, if you're only accessing one variable in the table at a time, you might find that

fid.Var28(1:10)

is more readable than

fid{1:10,28}

Some people prefer the dot to the braces. In any case, one of the benefits of tables is that you can use a meeaningful name, rather than a number like 28. So even

fid{k,'Var28'}

might be preferable. Of course, "Var28' probably isn't the name that readtable will create from the file, you would use whatever that is.