testCAindex.m

%% This illustrates the functionality of the CAindex class
% Written by Will Jackson
% Copyright 2010 The MathWorks, Inc.

c = {'first','second'; 1,2; '3',4; 'b',5};

CELLARRAY = CAindex(c);

numel(CELLARRAY);

%% Testing subsref
CELLARRAY(:)                    % Same as c(:)
CELLARRAY(1,2)                  % Same as c(1,2);
CELLARRAY{1:end,1:2}            % Same as c{1:end,1:2};                   
CELLARRAY{:,:,:}                % Same as c{:,:,:};                         

% These is the same as saying CELLARRAY(:,x) where x is the number of the
% column which is headed by the given string.
CELLARRAY('first')              % Same as c(2:end,1)
CELLARRAY('second')             % Same as c(2:end,2)

% These is the same as saying CELLARRAY{:,x} where x is the number of the
% column which is headed by the given string.
CELLARRAY{'first'}              % Same as c{2:end,1}
CELLARRAY{'second'}             % Same as c{2:end,2}

CELLARRAY(2:4,1:2,1,:,:,1)      % Demo crazier indexing

CELLARRAY(2:end,1:end,1,:,:,1)  % Demo crazier indexing with () and end
CELLARRAY{2:end,1:end,1,:,:,1}  % Demo crazier indexing with {} and end    

CELLARRAY(:,end) = {'second',2,3,4}
%% Demonstrating subsasgn

CELLARRAY('first') = {1;3;6}         
CELLARRAY('first') = [1;3;6]    % Same as previous line
CELLARRAY('first') = [1 3 6]    % Same as previous line
CELLARRAY{'first'} = {1;3;6}    % Same as previous line
CELLARRAY{'first'} = [1;3;6]    % Same as previous line
CELLARRAY{'first'} = [1 3 6]    % Same as previous line

CELLARRAY(2:end, 2) = {2;4;7}   

CELLARRAY{2,1} = 'This works!'
CELLARRAY{3,1} = 12345

% [CELLARRAY{2:end,2}] = deal(1,2,3) %This does not work and I'm not sure 
% it is possible

%% Demonstrating transpose, ctranspose, vertcat, horzcat and size

c2 = {'one', 'two'; 17 + 1i, 'Tom'; 'Sam', 13 - 14i; 'Steve', 'Paul'};
A = CAindex(c2)                 

A.'    

A'

[A; A; A]                       

[A A A]                         

size(A)

%% Simple Use case

d = CAindex;

%If a column hasn't been created, it will be created.  Also, the data can
%be any size, but it will be resized into a column when input like this.
d('first') =  rand(1,20)  
d{'first'} =  rand(1,20)   %Same as previous line

%Doesn't matter if the number of elements is different than the rest of the
%columns
d('second') = rand(1,10)       
d{'second'} = rand(1,10)   %Same as previous line

%This will plot even if the number of elements in each column differ
plot(d);

%#ok<*NOPTS>