How can i scan Column A in a matrix and if its true to have it average values in Column C

Basically i have a excel file full of information in 3 different columns which are about 5000 rows long and i need to know if there is a way to have matlab scan the first column until it finds what i have prompted the user to enter. Once it finds the first instance in column A to be true i need it to immediately go to column C and average the current value as well as the next 20 values starting with the first.

Basically i want to tell matlab to search column A for 'United States' if its true switch to column C and average the current value and the next 20 is this possible? If so how would i go about doing it. Thanks.

Answer 1

[Simon]

Hi!

So you already imported your data into matlab? What kind of matrix do you have? Is it a cell array with strings in the first column? What is in the third column?

If you have a cell array "C" with strings in the first column, you may find the user input "str" with

% logical vector of found strings
tf = strcmp(str, C(:, 1));
% do we have something?
if ~isempty(tf)
  % positions (rows) in C
  ind = find(tf);
  % average for each found string
  for n = 1:length(ind)
    % this depends on the kind of matrix you have
    mean([C{ind(n):ind(n)+20}])
  end
end