error:Cell elements must be character arrays.

Hi ,

I am running a loop : ISIN(i,1)=cusip2isin('US',Cusip91(i)); % I obtained cusip2isin from the file exchange forum. Cusip91(i)='05978R107' when i=1 and gives ISIN(1)='US05978R1077' without any error. but for i=2 , CUSIP91(2)=[463347104] and gives an error: Error using char Cell elements must be character arrays.

Error in cusip2isin (line 25) cusip=char(cusip);

I am wondering how to get rid of this error? I am not very familiar with char and cell arrays. Any help is greatly appreciated

Answer 1

[Image Analyst]

Why is cell #1 a string, '05978R107', while cell #2 is a double scalar,[463347104]? Evidently that File Exchange function wants a cell that contains a string, not a cell that contains a double. You can convert to a string doing something like

if isnumeric(CUSIP91{i})
    % Contents of cell are a number.
    % Extract number, convert to a string
    % then stick back into a cell.
    thisCell = {num2str(CUSIP91{i})};
else
    % The cell already contains a string so nothing to do.
    thisCell = CUSIP91(i); 
end
% Now call with a cell that has a string inside of it.
ISIN(i,1)=cusip2isin('US', thisCell);

For a good intuitive explanation of cells, see the DAQ: http://matlab.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ#What_is_a_cell_array.3F

[AHawk]

Hello I am using this answer on an empty cell I created and am still getting an error message. My code is as follows

 t1 = 1;
 [~,y] = size(Data);

 for k = 1:length(Data)
   NewMatrix = cell(1,y);

   if isnumeric(NewMatrix{1i})
       thisCell = {num2str(NewMatrix{1i})};
   else
       thisCell = NewMatrix(1i);
   end

   char(NewMatrix);

But I am getting the following error message

'Subscript indices must either be real positive integers or logicals.' for this line of code 'if isnumeric(NewMatrix{1i})'

[Image Analyst]

1i is the imaginary variable "i" = sqrt(-1). You cannot use this as an array index.

In this line:

if isnumeric(NewMatrix{1i})

And why should NewMatrix have anything in it when you just created it? It won't, it will be a row vector of "y" empty cells.