How to get TRUE/FLASE to work for arrays of cells with mixed string and integer values?

I have a 1x14 cell array:

 data{1} = 9  9  NaN  6  19  8  17  7  15  31  6  18  4  13

I am trying to apply a T/F logic test to it:

 tf = data{1} == NaN;

But I get 1x14 vector of zeroes, doesn't seem to work for non-integers.

Whats the best way to check for a string value?

The end goal is to remove the cells containing 'NaN' from the array.

Thank you!

Answer 1

[Matt Fig]

NaN is not a string, but is the symbol for Not-A-Number. For example, 0/0 will produce NaN. To remove the nans, do something like this:

data{1} = [9  9  NaN  6  19  8  17  7  15  31  6  18  4  13];
data{1} = data{1}(~isnan(data{1}))

If, rather than remove the nans you wish to replace them with something like zero, to this:

data{1} = [9  9  NaN  6  19  8  17  7  15  31  6  18  4  13];
data{1}(isnan(data{1})) = 0

[sono]

I see. I just got thrown in to the wonderful world of matlab; still trying to figure out this craziness.

tank you! that's perfect.

Answer 2

[Walter Roberson]

You need to use isnan() to compare to NaN. NaN does not test equal to anything, including itself.

NaN == NaN

will give false.

You do not show any strings in your sample input.