How do a cell2mat conversion for a non-uniform cell to a matrix

1. I have a 1 x 10 cell with Non-uniform data in each cell array.
2. How do a cell2mat conversion without losing any of the element.
3. The output i want is such that the content of each of the cell is made a row vector with the subsequent cells 'concatenate' next to it in the order they appear in the cell array, i.e number of row of the matrix is equal to the max(length) while others are zero padded and the number of column is equal to number of column of the cell array. As in the example where the cell is 1x10, the result cell2mat matrix should be x-row by 10 column.

The shape looks like:

DD = {3401×1 double} {3601×1 double} {8081×1 double} {4041×1 double} {8721×1 double} {4281×1 double}

{5521×1 double} {4041×1 double} {4881×1 double} {5761×1 double}

From the above, the number of row in cell each array is different but I want an output that will covert the cell to a matrix.

Desire output

DD_matrix = 8721-row by 10-column (8721 being the cell with largest row number, others that follow should be zero padded)

Answer 1

[Simon Chan]

Do it in several steps as follows:

idx.size = cellfun(@length,DD);
idx.padded = max(idx.size)-idx.size;
DDpadded = cellfun(@(x,y) [x;zeros(y,1)],DD,num2cell(idx.padded),'uni',0);
DD_matrix = cell2mat(DDpadded);

[Cutie]

@Simon Chan can you please explain this line

DDpadded = cellfun(@(x,y) [x;zeros(y,1)],DD,num2cell(idx.padded),'uni',0);

where is the x & y coming from?

[Simon Chan]

You may refer to the MATLAB documentation about function cellfun.

In your case, there are two input arguments which are variable DD and num2cell(idx.padded).

So x and y are referring to variable DD and num2cell(idx.padded) respectively.

[Cutie]

Thank you so much @Simon Chan

Answer 2

[Matt J]

cell2mat(DD(:))

[Cutie]

Thank you @Matt J but this is not the output that I want.

The output i want is such that the content of each of the cell is made a row vector with the subsequent cells 'concatenate' next to it in the order they appear in the cell array, i.e number of row of the matrix is equal to the max(length) while others are zero padded and the number of column is equal to number of column of the cell array. As in the example where the cell is 1x10, the result cell2mat matrix should be x-row by 10 column.

The shape looks like:

DD = {3401×1 double} {3601×1 double} {8081×1 double} {4041×1 double} {8721×1 double} {4281×1 double}

{5521×1 double} {4041×1 double} {4881×1 double} {5761×1 double}

From the above, the number of row in cell each array is different but I want an output that will covert the cell to a matrix.

Desire output

DD_matrix = 8721-row by 10-column (8721 being the cell with largest row number, others that follow should be zero padded)