How to concatenate string vectors of unequal length?

If I have thee vectors v1 = {'a' 'b' 'c'}', v2 = {'d'}' and v3 = {'e' 'f'}', how do I create a four vector v4 =

'a' 'd' 'e'

'b' '' 'f'

'c' '' ''

?

[Stephen23]

Actually this is concatenating cell arrays of unequal lengths... the fact that these contain strings is totally irrelevant to both the question and the answer. The title should be "How to concatenate cell vectors of unequal length?"

Answer 1

[Image Analyst]

Try this:

% Define component cell arrays.
v1 = {'a'; 'b'; 'c'}
v2 = {'d'}
v3 = {'e'; 'f'}
% Find out how  big cell array needs to be.
lv1 = length(v1);
lv2 = length(v2);
lv3 = length(v3);
rows = max([lv1,lv2,lv3])
% Instatiate cell array of the max size.
v4 = cell(rows, 3)
% stuff each column in.
v4(1:lv1, 1) = v1;
v4(1:lv2, 2) = v2;
v4(1:lv3, 3) = v3;
% Print out results
fprintf('\n\nHere is the output cell array:\n');
v4

In the command window:

Here is the output cell array:

v4 = 
    'a'    'd'    'e'
    'b'     []    'f'
    'c'     []     []

[Danny]

Thank you.

Answer 2

[Azzi Abdelmalek]

v1 = {'a' 'b' 'c'}', 
v2 = {'d'}' 
v3 = {'e' 'f'}'
v=cell(3,3)
v(:,:)={' '}
v(1:3,1)=v1
v(1,2)=v2
v(1:2,3)=v3

Answer 3

[Thorsten]

 v1 = {'a' 'b' 'c'}';
 v2 = {'d'}';
 v3 = {'e' 'f'}'; 
 m = max([numel(v1) numel(v2) numel(v3)]);
 if numel(v1) < m, v1{m} = []; end
 if numel(v2) < m, v2{m} = []; end
 if numel(v3) < m, v3{m} = []; end
 M = [v1 v2' v3]';
 X = M(:);

Answer 4

[Shoaibur Rahman]

v1 = {'a' 'b' 'c'}';
v2 = {'d'}';
v3 = {'e' 'f'}';
Lv1 = length(v1); Lv2 = length(v2); Lv3 = length(v3);
n = max([Lv1 Lv2 Lv3]);
v1cell = [v1; cell(n-Lv1,1)];
v2cell = [v2; cell(n-Lv2,1)];
v3cell = [v3; cell(n-Lv3,1)];
v4 = [v1cell v2cell v3cell];