how to automate the count of consecutive values in a cell array

Hi! I have a cell array with this values

a={'2' '3' '4' '5'; '2' '2' '3' '1'; '2' '2' '2' '1';'1' '2' '3' '3'; '1' '2' '3' '4'};
a = 
    '2'    '3'    '4'    '5'
    '2'    '2'    '3'    '1'
    '2'    '2'    '2'    '1'
    '1'    '2'    '3'    '3'
    '1'    '2'    '3'    '4'

and I want to count the number of consecutive values in the colums I consider the first two columns and I find the couples:

('2' '3'), ('2' '2')  ('1' '2')

I want to find the number of times that this couples are presents in the first two colums

('2' '3') --> 1
('2' '2') --> 2
('1' '2') --> 2

After I consider the triple

('2' '3' '4'), ('2' '2' '3'), ('2' '2' '2'), ('1' '2' '3')

I want to find the number of times that this couples are presents in the first three columns:

('2' '3' '4')--> 1
('2' '2' '3')--> 1
('2' '2' '2')--> 1
('1' '2' '3')--> 2

After I consider the quadruple

('2' '3' '4' '5'), ('2' '2' '3' '1'), ('2' '2' '2' '1'), ('1' '2' '3' '3') ('1' '2' '3' '4')

I want to find the number of times that this couples are presents in the four columns:

('2' '3' '4' '5')--> 1
 ('2' '2' '3' '1')--> 1
 ('2' '2' '2' '1')--> 1
 ('1' '2' '3' '3')--> 1
 ('1' '2' '3' '4')--> 1

Can you help me?

Answer 1

[Azzi Abdelmalek]

x={'2' '3' '4' '5'; '2' '2' '3' '1'; '2' '2' '2' '1';'1' '2' '3' '3'; '1' '2' '3' '4'};
[n,m]=size(x)
for k=2:m
  a=x(:,1:k)
  b=arrayfun(@(x) strjoin(a(x,1:k),'/'),(1:size(a,1))','un',0);
  [ii,jj,kk]=unique(b,'stable');
  out{k-1,1}=[a(jj,:) num2cell(accumarray(kk,1))];
end
out{1}
out{2}
out{3}