Create Structure from cell array with dot separation in string
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Hi everyone,
I am reading in data from a measurements where the signal names are imported as a 1-dimensional cell array. The respective strings in the cell array represent the signal name. The signal names have been given already an inherent "structure" themselves.
What i want to do now is to automatically create a structure in matlab based on the signal names and then associate the respective measurements which per signal are a 1-dimensional numeric array.
To clarify and give an example, two strings would be for example:
{'em1500.eta_t.x []' }
{'em1500.eta_t.y []' }
I now want to automatically create a structure like:
measurements.em1500.eta_t.x = (The measurements taken);
measurements.em1500.eta_t.y = (The measurements taken);
Does anybody has an idea how to automate that process?
Best regards
2 Comments
Stephen23
on 30 Jun 2022
Edited: Stephen23
on 30 Jun 2022
"Does anybody has an idea how to automate that process?"
Creation of invalid fieldnames cannot be "automated".
However rather than writing fragile/buggy code that forces meta-data into fieldnames, why not just simply store that meta-data as data in its own right? Then your code will be simpler, more robust, and much more efficient.
Accepted Answer
More Answers (2)
Fangjun Jiang
on 30 Jun 2022
Edited: Fangjun Jiang
on 30 Jun 2022
If your question comes down to whether "em1500.eta_t.x" can be made a field name, then the anser is No. It is an invalid field name, just as you can't make "123 xyz" a variable name.
If you can make that name to be "em1500_eta_t_x", then you can use
MyStuct=struct('em1500_eta_t_x',rand)
To establish a multi-layer structure, you can do it directly
clear a
a=struct
a.b.c.d=1
a.b.c.d
Steven Lord
on 30 Jun 2022
s = 'em1500.eta_t.x';
f = split(s, '.')
At this point you may want to use matlab.lang.makeValidName to ensure the field names (the 'pieces' of s) are valid identifiers.
mydata = setfield(struct, f{:}, 1)
mydata.em1500
mydata.em1500.eta_t
Alternately you might want to make this a table array with s as either the row name or (if you're using a release that supports table variable names that aren't valid identifiers) the variable name.
t1 = table(1, 'VariableNames', {s})
y = t1.("em1500.eta_t.x")
t2 = table(1, 'RowNames', {s})
z = t2{"em1500.eta_t.x", 1}
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