I would like to select all the variables in my workspace whos name follow a specific pattern. For example, I would like to compute the mean for all the variables in my workspace starting with the name my_vars.
I tried the following code:
a = who('-regexp','my_vars*')
result = mean(eval(a))
Howevever the eval function doesn't work for cells. Is there any work arround?
who returned a cell array of char arrays (i.e. strings), with each element containing one variable name. You need to convert that to a string containing a comma-separated list of the names. Here's one way to do that:
my_vars1 = 1; my_vars2 = 2; my_vars3 = 3;
names = who('-regexp', 'my_vars*');
namelist = sprintf('%s,', names{:}); % sprintf reuses the format string if
% there are more inputs than format specifiers
namelist(end)=[]; % strip last comma
eval(sprintf('mean([%s])', namelist))
ans =
2
Related
I want to make a script in MATLAB that saves my output data with a certain name. All information for this name is in the path from the input data, like it is shown here:
path = 'C:\projektions100\algorithm1\method_A\data1';
projection =
algorithm =
method =
data =
The script then should extract the text in the path with the keyword (f.e. method) from the adjacent backslashes so the script is more flexible in case I made a spelling mistake with some folder names.
This is what I found to extract a text between a start and a end point but I cannot simply use the backslashes since there are a few of them in the path.
How should I proceed?
You can simply use a regexp with named tokens:
>> path = 'C:\projektions100\algorithm1\method_A\data1';
>> all=regexp(path,'[^\\]+\\proje[ck]tion(?<projection>[^\\]+)\\algorithm(?<algorithm>[^\\]+)\\method(?<method>[^\\]+)\\data(?<data>.+$)','names')
all =
struct with fields:
projection: 's100'
algorithm: '1'
method: '_A'
data: '1'
The problem is on how to find the end of your keywords. Here is a bit code, which loops through the keywords and looks for them in the path (stored in p2fldr, because the variable path returns the working path in MATLAB and you overshadow it if you define it).
p2fldr = 'C:\projektions100\algorithm1\method_A\data1';
% keywords
kyWrd = {'projection','algorithm','method','data'};
Tag = cell(size(kyWrd));
for i = 1:length(kyWrd)
% get keyword
ky = kyWrd{i};
% look for it in the path
idx = strfind(p2fldr,ky);
if ~isempty(idx)
% remaining path
idx_offset = idx+strlength(ky);
prm = p2fldr(idx_offset:end);
% look for file separator '\'
idx_tmp = strfind(prm,filesep);
% if you don't find one, it is pabably the last entry, so take the
% length
if isempty(idx_tmp)
idx_tmp = length(prm)+1;
end
% this is the index where it ends
idx2 = idx_tmp(1)-1;
% assign to tag-cell
Tag{i} = prm(1:idx2);
end
end
You can build a shortcut if you know that they are always in the last 4 entries of your path, so you can use strsplit right away and index the last returned cells
str_splt = strsplit(p2fldr,filesep);
Tag = cell(size(kyWrd));
for i = 1:length(kyWrd)
% index cells
str = str_splt{end-length(kyWrd)+i};
% get keyword
ky = kyWrd{i};
Tag{i} = str(length(ky)+1:end);
end
Note that this does not care if it matches your keywords (e.g. your path says 'projektions' but I defined the keyword to be 'projection')
I am trying to define the following function in MATLAB:
file = #(var1,var2,var3,var4) ['var1=' num2str(var1) 'var2=' num2str(var2) 'var3=' num2str(var3) 'var4=' num2str(var4)'];
However, I want the function to expand as I add more parameters; if I wanted to add the variable vark, I want the function to be:
file = #(var1,var2,var3,var4,vark) ['var1=' num2str(var1) 'var2=' num2str(var2) 'var3=' num2str(var3) 'var4=' num2str(var4) 'vark=' num2str(vark)'];
Is there a systematic way to do this?
Use fprintf with varargin for this:
f = #(varargin) fprintf('var%i= %i\n', [(1:numel(varargin));[varargin{:}]])
f(5,6,7,88)
var1= 5
var2= 6
var3= 7
var4= 88
The format I've used is: 'var%i= %i\n'. This means it will first write var then %i says it should input an integer. Thereafter it should write = followed by a new number: %i and a newline \n.
It will choose the integer in odd positions for var%i and integers in the even positions for the actual number. Since the linear index in MATLAB goes column for column we place the vector [1 2 3 4 5 ...] on top, and the content of the variable in the second row.
By the way: If you actually want it on the format you specified in the question, skip the \n:
f = #(varargin) fprintf('var%i= %i', [(1:numel(varargin));[varargin{:}]])
f(6,12,3,15,5553)
var1= 6var2= 12var3= 3var4= 15var5= 5553
Also, you can change the second %i to floats (%f), doubles (%d) etc.
If you want to use actual variable names var1, var2, var3, ... in your input then I can only say one thing: Don't! It's a horrible idea. Use cells, structs, or anything else than numbered variable names.
Just to be crytsal clear: Don't use the output from this in MATLAB in combination with eval! eval is evil. The Mathworks actually warns you about this in the official documentation!
How about calling the function as many times as the number of parameters? I wrote this considering the specific form of the character string returned by your function where k is assumed to be the index of the 'kth' variable to be entered. Array var can be the list of your numeric parameters.
file=#(var,i)[strcat('var',num2str(i),'=') num2str(var) ];
var=[2,3,4,5];
str='';
for i=1:length(var);
str=strcat(str,file(var(i),i));
end
If you want a function to accept a flexible number of input arguments, you need varargin.
In case you want the final string to be composed of the names of your variables as in your workspace, I found no way, since you need varargin and then it looks impossible. But if you are fine with having var1, var2 in your string, you can define this function and then use it:
function str = strgen(varargin)
str = '';
for ii = 1:numel(varargin);
str = sprintf('%s var%d = %s', str, ii, num2str(varargin{ii}));
end
str = str(2:end); % to remove the initial blank space
It is also compatible with strings. Testing it:
% A = pi;
% B = 'Hello!';
strgen(A, B)
ans =
var1 = 3.1416 var2 = Hello!
I have a long list of variables in my workspace.
First, I'm finding the potential variables I could be interested in using the who function. Next, I'd like to loop through this list to find the size of each variable, however who outputs only the name of the variables as a string.
How could I use this list to refer to the values of the variables, rather than just the name?
Thank you,
list = who('*time*')
list =
'time'
'time_1'
'time_2'
for i = 1:size(list,1);
len(i,1) = length(list(i))
end
len =
1
1
1
If you want details about the variables, you can use whos instead which will return a struct that contains (among other things) the dimensions (size) and storage size (bytes).
As far as getting the value, you could use eval but this is not recommended and you should instead consider using cell arrays or structs with dynamic field names rather than dynamic variable names.
S = whos('*time*');
for k = 1:numel(S)
disp(S(k).name)
disp(S(k).bytes)
disp(S(k).size)
% The number of elements
len(k) = prod(S(k).size);
% You CAN get the value this way (not recommended)
value = eval(S(k).name);
end
#Suever nicely explained the straightforward way to get this information. As I noted in a comment, I suggest that you take a step back, and don't generate those dynamically named variables to begin with.
You can access structs dynamically, without having to resort to the slow and unsafe eval:
timestruc.field = time;
timestruc.('field1') = time_1;
fname = 'field2';
timestruc.(fname) = time_2;
The above three assignments are all valid for a struct, and so you can address the fields of a single data struct by generating the field strings dynamically. The only constraint is that field names have to be valid variable names, so the first character of the field has to be a letter.
But here's a quick way out of the trap you got yourself into: save your workspace (well, the relevant part) in a .mat file, and read it back in. You can do this in a way that will give you a struct with fields that are exactly your variable names:
time = 1;
time_1 = 2;
time_2 = rand(4);
save('tmp.mat','time*'); % or just save('tmp.mat')
S = load('tmp.mat');
afterwards S will be a struct, each field will correspond to a variable you saved into 'tmp.mat':
>> S
S =
time: 1
time_1: 2
time_2: [4x4 double]
An example writing variables from workspace to csv files:
clear;
% Writing variables of myfile.mat to csv files
load('myfile.mat');
allvars = who;
for i=1:length(allvars)
varname = strjoin(allvars(i));
evalstr = strcat('csvwrite(', char(39), varname, '.csv', char(39), ', ', varname, ')');
eval(evalstr);
end
I am trying to take the averages of a pretty large set of data, so i have created a function to do exactly that.
The data is stored in some struct1.struct2.data(:,column)
there are 4 struct1 and each of these have between 20 and 30 sub-struct2
the data that I want to average is always stored in column 7 and I want to output the average of each struct2.data(:,column) into a 2xN array/double (column 1 of this output is a reference to each sub-struct2 column 2 is the average)
The omly problem is, I can't find a way (lots and lots of reading) to point at each structure properly. I am using a string to refer to the structures, but I get error Attempt to reference field of non-structure array. So clearly it doesn't like this. Here is what I used. (excuse the inelegence)
function [avrg] = Takemean(prefix,numslits)
% place holder arrays
avs = [];
slits = [];
% iterate over the sub-struct (struct2)
for currslit=1:numslits
dataname = sprintf('%s_slit_%02d',prefix,currslit);
% slap the average and slit ID on the end
avs(end+1) = mean(prefix.dataname.data(:,7));
slits(end+1) = currslit;
end
% transpose the arrays
avs = avs';
slits = slits';
avrg = cat(2,slits,avs); % slap them together
It falls over at this line avs(end+1) = mean(prefix.dataname.data,7); because as you can see, prefix and dataname are strings. So, after hunting around I tried making these strings variables with genvarname() still no luck!
I have spent hours on what should have been 5min of coding. :'(
Edit: Oh prefix is a string e.g. 'Hs' and the structure of the structures (lol) is e.g. Hs.Hs_slit_XX.data() where XX is e.g. 01,02,...27
Edit: If I just run mean(Hs.Hs_slit_01.data(:,7)) it works fine... but then I cant iterate over all of the _slit_XX
If you simply want to iterate over the fields with the name pattern <something>_slit_<something>, you need neither the prefix string nor numslits for this. Pass the actual structure to your function, extract the desired fields and then itereate them:
function avrg = Takemean(s)
%// Extract only the "_slit_" fields
names = fieldnames(s);
names = names(~cellfun('isempty', strfind(names, '_slit_')));
%// Iterate over fields and calculate means
avrg = zeros(numel(names), 2);
for k = 1:numel(names)
avrg(k, :) = [k, mean(s.(names{k}).data(:, 7))];
end
This method uses dynamic field referencing to access fields in structs using strings.
First of all, think twice before you use string construction to access variables.
If you really really need it, here is how it can be used:
a.b=123;
s1 = 'a';
s2 = 'b';
eval([s1 '.' s2])
In your case probably something like:
Hs.Hs_slit_01.data= rand(3,7);
avs = [];
dataname = 'Hs_slit_01';
prefix = 'Hs';
eval(['avs(end+1) = mean(' prefix '.' dataname '.data(:,7))'])
I'm interested in the general problem of accessing a field which may be buried an arbitrary number of levels deep in a containing structure. A concrete example using two levels is below.
Say I have a structure toplevel, which I define from the MATLAB command line with the following:
midlevel.bottomlevel = 'foo';
toplevel.midlevel = midlevel;
I can access the midlevel structure by passing the field name as a string, e.g.:
fieldnameToAccess = 'midlevel';
value = toplevel.(fieldnameToAccess);
but I can't access the bottomlevel structure the same way -- the following is not valid syntax:
fieldnameToAccess = 'midlevel.bottomlevel';
value = toplevel.(fieldnameToAccess); %# throws ??? Reference to non-existent field 'midlevel.bottomlevel'
I could write a function that looks through fieldnameToAccess for periods and then recursively iterates through to get the desired field, but I am wondering if there's some clever way to use MATLAB built-ins to just get the field value directly.
You would have to split the dynamic field accessing into two steps for your example, such as:
>> field1 = 'midlevel';
>> field2 = 'bottomlevel';
>> value = toplevel.(field1).(field2)
value =
foo
However, there is a way you can generalize this solution for a string with an arbitrary number of subfields delimited by periods. You can use the function TEXTSCAN to extract the field names from the string and the function GETFIELD to perform the recursive field accessing in one step:
>> fieldnameToAccess = 'midlevel.bottomlevel';
>> fields = textscan(fieldnameToAccess,'%s','Delimiter','.');
>> value = getfield(toplevel,fields{1}{:})
value =
foo