Extract data range from nested cell array

Hi,

I have a 5x1 cell array where each cell is a sheet from an excel spreadsheet (5 sheets in total). I used 'readtable' to read in the excel data. I am trying to extract a data range from this nested cell array but I can't find the correct notation. This doesn't work:

cell_array_data_range = cell_array{1,1}{8,2}:{8,7}

error: Operator ':' is not supported for operands of type 'cell'.

I am trying to extract, from the first sheet (i.e. {1,1}), the 2nd till the 7th elements from row 8.

Thank you

[Voss]

Can you share the code where you construct cell_array using readtable?

[mark]

cell_array=cell(5,1); %initialize

for w=1:5

cell_array{w,1} = readcell('My_Excel_file_name', 'Sheet', num2str(excel_sheet_names(w,1)));

end

%excel_sheet_names is a 5x1 string where each element is the sheet name of the excel file

thank you for your reply

[mark]

My mistake, I forgot i changed 'readtable' for 'readcell'

Answer 1

[Voss]

This syntax should work "to extract, from the first sheet (i.e. {1,1}), the 2nd till the 7th elements from row 8":

cell_array{1,1}(8,2:7)

Or, simpler:

cell_array{1}(8,2:7)

which we can do because cell_array has only one non-singleton dimension (in this case cell_array is a column vector).

If you used readtable, then either of those two expressions returns a 1x6 table; if you used readcell, then they give you a 1x6 cell array.

[mark]

Thank you so much, this is exactly what I was looking for!

[Voss]

You're welcome!