Given a cell array, find the longest string
30 views (last 30 days)
Show older comments
Preferably without using loops, I need to find the longest string in a cell array. So with an example array such as the following, in what ways could I go about this? If there are multiple entries with the same length, I need to be able to find both of them.
I'd like to see a way to do it with loops as well.
Pete Townshend Toyota Gene Simmons Steve Jobs Socrates Frank Sinatra Astronomy Idaho Sweatshirt
Thanks
0 Comments
Accepted Answer
Azzi Abdelmalek
on 15 Feb 2013
Edited: Azzi Abdelmalek
on 15 Feb 2013
a={'Pete' 'Townshend1' 'Simmons' 'Steve' 'Sinatra' 'Idaho' 'Sweatshirt'}
val=cellfun(@(x) numel(x),a)
out=a(val==max(val))
%With a loop
for k=1:numel(a)
val(k)=numel(a{k})
end
out=a(val==max(val))
1 Comment
Jan
on 15 Feb 2013
Edited: Jan
on 15 Feb 2013
cellfun('length', a) is much more efficient, because the string methods of cellfun() are determined inside the MEX function, while the anonymous functions need to call Matlab for each argument. Unfortunately these string methods are marked as "backward compatibility" feature only in the documentation, but this is an understatement.
More Answers (0)
See Also
Categories
Find more on Parallel for-Loops (parfor) in Help Center and File Exchange
Community Treasure Hunt
Find the treasures in MATLAB Central and discover how the community can help you!
Start Hunting!