Thread Subject: Unique rows with a twist

hi,

I need some help with solving this problem.

Suppose we have
 A cell matrix of strings with 2 columns( Actually it is very big):

A = { 'XYZ' '1'
                'X' '1'}

What is the best way to get UNiQUE rows with ONLY the FIRST OCCURENCE that is of maximum length of the two. I.e, I want the function to return

B = 'XYZ' '1'

because 1 occurs twice and XYZ is the largest of those two.

Currently unique(A,'rows') gives both the rows.

Can I just clarify the problem?

It seems you're looking to remove rows which (in, say, column 1) contain some of the same letters. Or is it the first letter? Or is it the one with maximum length in the first column, given that the second column matches? Or a whole number of other possibilities...

To help us understand what you need, what would be the outcome of your ideal function if it was given the following arrays:

A = {'XYZ' '1'
      'X' '1'
      'Y' '1'}

B = {'XYZ' '1'
      'XYZQ' '1'}

C = {'XYZQ' '1'}
      'XYZ' '1'}

D = {'XYZQ' '1'
      'Q' '1'}

E = {'R' '1'
      'R' '2'
      'RS' '2'}

F = {'ABCD' '1'
      'PQRSWEA' '1'
      'APQRSWE' '1'
      'AB' '1'}

G = {'ABCD' '1'
      'PQRSWEA' '1'
      'APQRSWE' '1'
      'ABQWERTYUIOP' '1'}


??

That might help us figure out what you're looking for a bit better.

As an initial hint, I've a feeling you'd be looking to use some combination of unique with logical statement(s).

Kind Regards

Tom Clark