How can I return cell array values using an index matrix.

Hi there,

I have the following variables:

variableNames = {'Aaron', 'Brett', 'Charlie', 'Katie', 'Jess'}
index_matrix = [1,3,4,5,2; 2,1,4,5,3; 3,2,1,5,4]

and I want to return the variableName corresponding to that index in a new cell array or timetable:

index_name = {'Aaron','Charlie','Katie','Jess','Brett'; 
              'Brett','Aaron','Katie','Jess','Charlie'; 
              'Charlie','Brett','Aaron','Jess','Katie'}

My index_matrix is actually in a timetable, but I suppose once I have a solution for this I can adjust it.

Many thanks,

Aaron

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

index_name = variableNames(index_matrix);

[Jan]

@Aaron: You can solve simple problems with simple methods by using Matlab - beautiful. ;-)

[Aaron Jean-Baptiste]

That was embarrassingly easy. I suppose a follow-up is that I want to store this cell array as a time-series. I.e. I want to see on what date did 'Aaron' come first. How can I store the data in this ordered format?

[Walter Roberson]

timeseries() does not appear to be usable for cell array of strings.

You could convert to categorical... which would effectively look like your index matrix internally.

You could create a timetable() if you have a sufficiently new MATLAB.