In MATLAB, cell arrays are a type of arrays which stores elements of different data types and sizes in different cells, or one could say that cell arrays allow users to store heterogeneous data into a single array. For example, let us create a cell array which holds the name and age of a person.
Example 1:
% MATLAB Code for Cell
arr = {"Harry", "Stark", 23}
Output:
This will create a cell array of 1x3:
This was a simple example of cell arrays but, this is not a feasible way of creating them. So, we will now see better and efficient ways of creating and accessing the elements within.
Creating Empty Cell Arrays:
The cell() function creates an empty cell array of desired size. Its syntax is
arr_name = cell (<size>);
Let us see some examples, this will create a cell array of size x size dimensions.
Example 2:
% Creating Empty Cell Arrays Code
arr = cell(3);
Output:
Example 3:
Creating a cell array of size, size1 x size2 x ... x sizeN.
% MATLAB Code for Creating Empty Cell Arrays
arr = cell(3,2,3);
Output:
The resultant cell array would be of (3x2)x3 size.
Accessing Elements of Cell Arrays:
The elements of a cell array can be accessed by the same method of accessing ordinary arrays, by the indexing method. Let us see this with the help of an example.
Example 4:
% Accessing Elements of Cell Arrays in MATLAB
arr = {
["Harry", "Stark"];
2:9;
linspace(1,2,5)
};
% Accessing each element, one by one
arr(1)
arr(2)
arr(3)
Output:
