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How to change a certain array cell depending on its length

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Hello,
I currently have this very simple code:
if strlength(A) >= 250
A = [];
end
My objective is for every cell that A has which is larger than 250 characters, make that specific array row 0.
e.g. ( The 12th row of array A has more than 250 characters in it, thus it should become 0 after the code runs)
However, my problem is that the program just skips over the if statement as if it's false when in reality I have characters which go beyond 250.
I tried implementing the cellfun into this as well just in case every row of the array isn't being checked.
if cellfun(@strlength, A)>=250
A = [];
end
but still the same problem.
I know the if statement isn't false because upon running just
strlength(A) >= 250
I have a whole list of 0's (which corespond to characters under 250) and some 1's (which are those above 250)

Accepted Answer

Adam Danz
Adam Danz on 19 Sep 2019
Edited: Adam Danz on 19 Sep 2019
If 'A' is a cell array of character vectors and you'd like to replace cells that have a length greater than 250 with an empty char array,
A(strlength(A)>250) = {''};
For string arrays (ie, ["abc", "def", "ghi" ...],
A(strlength(A)>250) = "";
  8 Comments
Adam Danz
Adam Danz on 19 Sep 2019
If A is a cell array of paths and you're trying to eliminate the paths and keep the filenames, this would be a better approach:
[~,filenames] = cellfun(@fileparts,A,'UniformOutput',false)
Nom
Nom on 19 Sep 2019
Edited: Nom on 19 Sep 2019
I've decided to use your first method, just because I understand it much more clearly.
Main reason I'm doing this is because excel has a 255 column width limit which gives an error if I try query a file whose path is more than 255 characters. By just removing the file path's header (which just removes where the file was searched for) I can still retain the important information of where the file is located.
Thank you so much though Adam,
I really really appreciate all the help you provide.

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More Answers (1)

Fabio Freschi
Fabio Freschi on 19 Sep 2019
Edited: Fabio Freschi on 19 Sep 2019
mask = strlength(A) > 250;
A(mask) = cellfun(@(i) '', A(mask), 'uniform', 0);
  1 Comment
Nom
Nom on 19 Sep 2019
Thank you for your answer Sir,
I've decided to use
A(strlength(A)>250) = {''};
As it's just one simple line of code which acomplishes exactly what I needed it to do.
Thank you so much though!

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