Replace certain row values in a cell based on a condition

I have a 1600x1 cell, where every row contains one of two strings - A or B.

I am trying to replace them with doubles (A with 0, B with 1), but having some difficulties. The '==' operator does not work because it is a cell. My attempts to convert it to a vector (via cell2mat) failed with the very peculiar:

Error using cat

Dimensions of arrays being concatenated are not consistent.

Error in cell2mat (line 83)

m{n} = cat(1,c{:,n});

Error in my_file (line 149)

col = cell2mat(col)

My questions are two (of which only the first is important, second is merely curiosity):

1 - How do I replace the A and B strings in my 1600x1 cell with 0 and 1 respectively?

2 - Why does cell2mat fail when attempting to convert a Nx1 cell?

Answer 1

[Voss]

C = {'stringA'; 'stringA'; 'stringB'; 'stringA'}

C = 4×1 cell array
    {'stringA'}
    {'stringA'}
    {'stringB'}
    {'stringA'}

C_logical = strcmp(C,'stringB') % logical

C_logical = 4×1 logical array
   0
   0
   1
   0

C_double = double(strcmp(C,'stringB')) % double

C_double = 4×1

0 0 1 0

cell2mat(C) % works because all char vectors contained in C are the same length

ans = 4×7 char array
    'stringA'
    'stringA'
    'stringB'
    'stringA'

C{3} = 'stringBB'

C = 4×1 cell array
    {'stringA' }
    {'stringA' }
    {'stringBB'}
    {'stringA' }

cell2mat(C) % does not work because not all char vectors contained in C are the same length

Error using cat
Dimensions of arrays being concatenated are not consistent.

Error in cell2mat (line 83)
m{n} = cat(1,c{:,n});

[Bozhidar]

Thanks a lot, this worked great!

However, that cell was previously a column of a table, and I am now facing some difficulties with returning the resulting logical or double array into that table.

I get "Right hand side of an assignment into a table must be another table or a cell array", and when I try to convert the array to a cell I get greeted with "Conversion to cell from double/logical is not possible".

Do you maybe have a tip on how can I add that array into the table?

[Voss]

T = table({'stringA'; 'stringA'; 'stringB'; 'stringA'},[1;2;3;4])

T = 4×2 table
       Var1        Var2
    ___________    ____

    {'stringA'}     1  
    {'stringA'}     2  
    {'stringB'}     3  
    {'stringA'}     4  

% T.Var1 = strcmp(T.Var1,'stringB') % logical
T.Var1 = double(strcmp(T.Var1,'stringB')) % double

T = 4×2 table
    Var1    Var2
    ____    ____

     0       1  
     0       2  
     1       3  
     0       4