Is there a command that can check if a string is present in a certain array and output that same string?

Hi i want to make checks to some string array with variable dimension and i tried doing what's written in the code. I know the problem is the code in the "if" but i don't know what to do... All the functions i know that find a string in an array return an array of logical 0 and 1. I can transform the array in the same dimension by putting 0 in all the seasons that aren't present and add some || in the if statement but i feel it's less practical, and i simply want to know if it's possible.

%The first column is for other purposes
L = {1, ["Spring", "Summer"]; 0, ["Winter", "Summer","Autumn"]}
i=0;
while (i<2)
    i = i+1;
    if (L{i,2}(:)=="Winter")
        fprintf("Yes")
    end
end

[Voss]

What should the output be in the example you show?

Answer 1

[Voss]

I'm confused about what you want the output to be.

L = {1, ["Spring", "Summer"]; 0, ["Winter", "Summer","Autumn"]};

ism = cellfun(@(x)ismember("Winter",x),L(:,2))

ism = 2×1 logical array
   0
   1

[Francesco Maria]

I initially wanted the output to be the same string that i was checking. I noticed you used the ismember function that I knew nothing about and i simply used it in the same while loop i wrote, so the output is now a logical 1 or 0 for every row i'm checking and, by checking them one at a time, every output is now a single number. That pretty much resolved my issue, so thanks a lot for your help. Another thing i don't know is the @(x) you wrote next to ismember, what exactly does it do?

[Voss]

The @(x) creates an anonymous function of x. This is necessary for using cellfun, which runs ismember("Winter",x) where x is each string array in L(:,2), in turn (i.e., L{1,2}, then L{2,2}, and so on).

Essentially, using cellfun replaces your loop.

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/cellfun.html

[Francesco Maria]

Sorry i can't understand when the function ismember retrieve L(:,2) as an input for x. I just read how cellfun and anonymous function works and i only saw anonymous functions working with a clear input from somewhere. Does the program automatically retrieve the input when calling the anonymous function? Excuse me if i'm annoying or inappropriate, I literally started this project with 0 prior knowledge on MATLAB, so i'm trying to learn from anywhere. Thanks a lot for your responses

[Voss]

"Does the program automatically retrieve the input when calling the anonymous function?"

That's what cellfun does, so, yes.

Here's another example of cellfun:

C = {[1 2 3],[4 5 6 7],[8 9]};
% the function @(x)x(1) merely returns the first element of x,
% so when run via cellfun on C as above, the result should be the first
% element of each vector contained in C, i.e., [1 4 8]
cellfun(@(x)x(1),C)

ans = 1×3

1 4 8

[Francesco Maria]

Oh ok so you're using @(x) to create a function inside the "function" input of cellfun that has C as an input. I understand now, thanks you for all your explanations

[Voss]

Exactly. It's the same as this:

C = {[1 2 3],[4 5 6 7],[8 9]};
f = @(x)x(1);

cellfun(f,C) % apply the function f to the contents of each cell of C

ans = 1×3

1 4 8

[Walter Roberson]

ism = cellfun(@(x)ismember("Winter",x),L(:,2))

is the same as

InternalTemporaryVariable = @(x)ismember("Winter",x);
ism = cellfun(InternalTemporaryVariable, L(:,2));
clear InternalTemporaryVariable

That is, the temporary anonymous function is created before cellfun is called, and is removed after the call (because there are no more references to it.)