How to fill blank cells in the table using filled cells in the same column?

I have a 1*125 cell named "C". inside C I have 125 tables (456*12 tables). I want to fill every blank cell in 1 to 4 columns of these tables using the value written in the cells in the same column. please look at this example to explain what I want:

column 1 column2

blank blank

24 red

24 red

blank blank

24 red

24 red

24 red

so I want to change the above table to this:

column 1 column2

24 red

24 red

24 red

24 red

24 red

24 red

24 red

I want to apply this for every 125 tables in the C (column 1 to 4) I don't want to change the rest of the columns.

I was attached to C for you.

if any other question you have I would answer so quick.

thank you all.

Answer 1

[Adam Danz]

This simple, easy-to-read loop fills the missing elements in the first 4 columns of each table with the nearest non-missing element and takes less than 0.3 seconds.

for i = 1:numel(C)
    C{i}(:,1:4) = fillmissing(C{i}(:,1:4),'nearest');
end

If the header names for the 4 key columns are the same for all of your tables (which is the case of your data), you can use this method which uses variable names rather than assuming the column arragement of your tables.

headers = {'station_id' 'station_name' 'region_id' 'region_name'};
for i = 1:numel(C)
    colIdx = ismember(C{i}.Properties.VariableNames, headers);
    C{i}(:,colIdx) = fillmissing(C{i}(:,colIdx),'nearest');
end

Both methods require Matlab >=2016b

More info on fillmissing().

[BN]

Thank you so much.

[Adam Danz]

Glad I could help out!