Find and convert characters in cell array to numeric values

Im struggling with a portion of a hw problem. Ive been tasked with summing the unique prime numbers in a given cell array. My code works fine except if an element of an array that is a number is entered as a character ie {1, '3', 7, '7', 'a'}, when i run the code with {1, 3, 7, 7, 'a'} it gives me the correct answer.

here is my code so far:

cArr = {1, '3', 7, '7', 'a'};

numind = cellfun(@isnumeric, cArr);

cArr(~numind) = {0};

newarray = cell2mat(cArr);

logicalarray = isprime(newarray);

primeonly = logicalarray.*newarray;

c = unique(primeonly);

ans = sum(c);

is there a way to find characters like '3' and '7' and convert them to doubles so the rest of my code can work properly?

[Stephen23]

Simpler:

C = {1, '3', 7, '7', 'a'};
V = str2double(C);
X = cellfun(@isnumeric,C);
V(X) = [C{X}];
V = V(isfinite(V));
S = sum(unique(V(isprime(V))))

S = 10

Answer 1

[Ameer Hamza]

Try this

cArr = {'b', 7, 13, 21};
char_ind = cellfun(@ischar, cArr);
cArr(char_ind) = cellfun(@str2double, cArr(char_ind), 'uni', 0);
finite_ind = cellfun(@isfinite, cArr);
finites = [cArr{finite_ind}];
logicalarray = isprime(finites);
primeonly = finites(logicalarray);
c = unique(primeonly);
sum(c)

[That Guy]

why is it that when i enter {'b', 7, 13, 21} as my cell array it returns NaN instead of 20?

[Ameer Hamza]

Try the updated code.

[That Guy]

thanks!

[Ameer Hamza]

I am glad to be of help!