Error in Untitled3 (line 11): mask = z{:,1} == c{i,1} & z{:,2}==c{j,2} & z{:,3} == c{k,3} & z{:,4} == c{h,4}; Please help me !!

I have two file xlsx in which criteria.xlsx has 4 columns, the two first of these columns are texts, the remaining two columns are numbers.

In the same way, in file mean_std. xlsx, i have 5 columns, the two first of these columns are texts, the remaining three columns are numbers.

When I run the code below, i have message from matlab:

Error using  == 
Too many input arguments.

Error in Untitled3 (line 11)
                mask = z{:,1} == c{i,1} & z{:,2}==c{j,2} & z{:,3} == c{k,3} & z{:,4} == c{h,4};

Here is the code:

clear all

clc

[a,b,c] = xlsread('criteria.xlsx');

[x,y,z] = xlsread('mean_std.xlsx');

for i=1:49

      for j=1:21

          for k=1:2

              for h=1:3   

                  mask = z{:,1} == c{i,1} & z{:,2}==c{j,2} & z{:,3} == c{k,3} & z{:,4} == c{h,4};

                  if size(z{mask,1},1) > 3                
                  m = mean(z{mask,5});              
                  z{mask,6} = m;               
                  n = std(z{mask,5});              
                  z{mask,7} = n;
                  end
              end
          end
      end
  end

xlswrite('mean_std.xlsx',z)

Thank you so much ^^

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

mask = strcmp(z(:,1), c{i,1}) & strcmp(z(:,2), c{j,2}) & strcmp(z(:,3), c{k,3}) & strcmp(z(:,4), c{h,4});

[Dung Le]

Could you please explain why you use () for z but {} for c while they are all raw data. In my code, I use {} for both z and c, but my code does not run.

Thanks :)!

[Walter Roberson]

c{i,1} is one value and will come out as a string.

z(:,1) is a cell array of strings, multiple strings.

You can compare a cell array of strings to a single specific string; see http://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/strcmp.html#btwfyr6-2

You want strcmp() to be called with exactly two arguments. c{i,1} is exactly one argument. z{:,1} expands to as many arguments as there are rows in z. z(:,1) expands to exactly one argument.

If you prefer you could use

strcmp(z(:,1), c(i,1))