number formatting - Convert cell to array in matlab

Question

I have a certain cell of size 400x1. It basically consists of numbers in the form of string. I mean when I do

mycell{1}

it gives result '1'

So you can see the number 1 is in the form of string. How can I convert this into a numeric array?

Answer 1

str2double(mycell)

Provided that you have an array of things that look like doubles:

>> c = {'1' '2' ; '3' '4'}

c = 

    '1'    '2'
    '3'    '4'

>> str2double(c)

ans =

     1     2
     3     4

>> whos ans
  Name      Size            Bytes  Class     Attributes

  ans       2x2                32  double              

If you have something that doesn't look like a double, you'll get a NaN in that cell in the result:

>> c{2,2} = 'aei'

c = 

    '1'    '2'  
    '3'    'aei'

>> str2double(c)

ans =

     1     2
     3   NaN