How can I sort an array of structures based upon a particular field in MATLAB?

I have a structure array, and I would like to use a function like SORT to arrange those structures.

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

The ability to use SORT with a structure array is not available in MATLAB.

As a workaround you can modify the following code that sorts an array of structures based upon a numeric first field:

%%Create dummy struct array

a.n=1;

a.name='a';

b.n=3;

b.name='b';

c.n=2;

c.name='c';

array = [a b c];

%%Sort the array

cells = struct2cell(array); %converts struct to cell matrix

sortvals = cells(1,1,:); % gets the values of just the first field

mat = cell2mat(sortvals); % converts values to a matrix

mat = squeeze(mat); %removes the empty dimensions for a single vector

[sorted,ix] = sort(mat); %sorts the vector of values

array = array(ix); %rearranges the original array

Answer 2

[Observer]

function outStructArray = SortArrayofStruct( structArray, fieldName )
    %UNTITLED2 Summary of this function goes here
    %   Detailed explanation goes here
    if ( ~isempty(structArray) &&  length (structArray) > 0)
      [~,I] = sort(arrayfun (@(x) x.(fieldName), structArray)) ;
      outStructArray = structArray(I) ;        
    else 
        disp ('Array of struct is empty');
    end      
end