character array vs cell array empty cells

I have an array, which is identified by iscell() as a cell array but behaves like a character array:

    'jan 7'   '2'   ''   '2.5'

I have 2 questions: 1) why is it not displayed in the console as:

    ['jan 7']   ['2']   ['']   ['2.5']

2) how can i change all [''] cells to [] 3) when trying to create a table with this data I am getting the message: You may have intended to create a table with one row from one or more variables that are character strings. Consider using cell arrays of strings rather than character arrays. Alternatively, create a cell array with one row, and convert that to a table using CELL2TABLE.

Is there a way to convert this array to be easily usable for my table?

Appreciate the help, and I realize this is a pretty basic question but help is appreciated

Thanks,

Will

Answer 1

[Marc Jakobi]

That's 3 questions ;)

1. I'm not sure I understand what you mean. If I create a cell array, it displays like this in the command window.

C = { 'jan 7'   '2'   ''   '2.5'}

C =

    1×4 cell array

      'jan 7'    '2'    ''    '2.5'

which is perfectly normal.

2. I would either create an empty copy of C and move the other values over

D = cell(size(C));
tf = ~ismember(C,'');
D(tf) = C(tf); % this will create an array  {'jan 7'   '2'   []   '2.5'}

or alternatively just remove the cells from C:

C(~ismember(C,'')) = []; % this will create an array  {'jan 7'   '2'   '2.5'}

3. Which function are you trying to use to create the table? If I use

T = cell2table(C);

it works just fine.

[Will Kinsman]

Thanks Marc! For some reason forgot about cell2table, as i dont use tables that often.