How do I delete empty cells in rows of a cell array?

Hi,

I have a cell array of strings and empty cells. I would like to rearrange this so the empty cells are on the end of each row. For example:

[a] [b] [ ] [ ] [c]
[d] [ ] [e] [ ] [ ]

should become:

[a] [b] [c] [ ] [ ]
[d] [e] [ ] [ ] [ ]

The reason I want to do this is to ultimately end up with a cell matrix of strings in the following form:

[abc]
[de]

How would I accomplish these things, or is there a more efficient way to end up with the matrix of strings?

Answer 1

[Azzi Abdelmalek]

A={['a'] ['b'] [ ] [ ] ['c']
['d'] [ ] ['e'] [ ] [ ]}
idx=not(cellfun(@isempty,A))
out=arrayfun(@(x) cell2mat(A(x,idx(x,:))),[1:size(A,1)]','un',0)

[Tom]

Thank you!

Answer 2

[Matt J]

You don't need to reorder the empty cells if all you intend to do is concatenate across rows:

    >> C={'a',[],'b';[], 'e','d'}

    C = 

        'a'     []    'b'
         []    'e'    'd'

>> Ccat=cell(size(C,1),1); for ii=1:size(C,1); Ccat{ii}=[C{ii,:}] ;end,
>> Ccat

Ccat = 

      'ab'
      'ed'