Is this a bug? Accessing table variables in cell format by row indices (R2015a)

I have a trouble in understanding a syntax to access table contents (MATLAB R2015a).

In the following example, you can access 1st, 2nd and 5th rows of table t just fine.

>> a = (1:10)';
>> t = table(a);
>> class(t.a)

ans =

double

>> t.a([1,2,5])

ans =

       1
       2
       5

However, when the table values are in cell array like below, although the cell array c and the column of table T.c appear to be identical, I cannot access to their content in the same way with row indices; that is, while c{[1,2,5]} can return all the three values, T.c{[1,2,5]} only returns the value for T.c{1} in this case.

I wonder if this is some kind of bug. If it is not, could someone explain me the logic behind this weird-looking behaviour?

>> c = num2cell(a);

% accessing cell array
>> c{[1,2,5]}

ans =

       1

ans =

       2

ans =

       5

>> A = [c{[1,2,5]}]'

A =

       1
       2
       5

% accessing table variable that is in cell format
>> T = table(c);
class(T.c)

ans =

cell 

>> T.c{[1,2,5]} 

ans =

       1

>> B= [T.c{[1,2,5]}]'

B =

       1

Answer 1

[Sean de Wolski]

In R2015b I see the expected results for both of your operations

t.c{[1,2,5]} 
ans =
  0.8147
ans =
  0.9058
ans =
  0.6324

[t.c{[1 2 5]}]
ans =
  0.8147    0.9058    0.6324

[Peter Perkins]

Sean is correct, R2015b will give you what you're looking for. It is one of many nice benefits of the new MATLAB Execution Engine .

Prior to that

[c1,c2,c5] = T.c{[1,2,5]}

should do what you want.

Answer 2

[Kouichi Nakamura]

Thank you, guys. Indeed, R2015b gave the expected results! Now I clarified that the version I used was R2015a.

Also, thank you, Peter, for the alternative syntax. For some reason, R2015b Mac is not very stable in my environment, so this trick is very helpful.