How to reformat this table's information so that a column of data becomes the header's for matching data?

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I apologize for the unclear title, not sure how to properly describe my request.
I have a table of data that is formatted as such when read into a matlab table:
Items Family
_______ __________
"Item1" "Family 1"
"Item2" "Family 2"
"Item3" "Family 4"
"Item4" "Family 2"
"Item5" "Family 3"
"Item6" "Family 1"
"Item7" "Family 1"
"Item8" "Family 3"
I want to convert this into a differently formatted table that has the items separated by families, like this:
Family 1 Family 2 Family 3 Family 4
________ ________ _________ _________
"Item1" "Item2" "Item5" "Item3"
"Item6" "Item4" "Item8" <missing>
"Item7" <missing> <missing> <missing>
I am struggling to come up with a solution for this. How can this be achieved, and is a table the best way to format this data?

Accepted Answer

Voss
Voss on 6 Jun 2022
Here's one way to do it:
% construct the initial table:
Items = ["Item1";"Item2";"Item3";"Item4";"Item5";"Item6";"Item7";"Item8"];
Family = ["Family 1";"Family 2";"Family 4";"Family 2";"Family 3";"Family 1";"Family 1";"Family 3"];
t = table(Items,Family)
t = 8×2 table
Items Family _______ __________ "Item1" "Family 1" "Item2" "Family 2" "Item3" "Family 4" "Item4" "Family 2" "Item5" "Family 3" "Item6" "Family 1" "Item7" "Family 1" "Item8" "Family 3"
% group t.Family:
[idx,group_ids] = findgroups(t.Family);
n_groups = numel(group_ids); % number of Family groups
% split t.Items into groups according to Family:
grouped_items = splitapply(@(x){x},t.Items,idx);
n_items = cellfun(@numel,grouped_items); % number of Items in each Family group
% construct 2d string array of Item* Strings, where each column
% is the Items in a Family group, filled out with <missing> String(s):
vals = repmat(string(missing()),max(n_items),n_groups);
for ii = 1:n_groups
vals(1:n_items(ii),ii) = grouped_items{ii};
end
% convert 2d String array into a cell array,
% to be used as an argument list in table():
vals = num2cell(vals,1);
% create the new table:
new_t = table(vals{:},'VariableNames',group_ids)
new_t = 3×4 table
Family 1 Family 2 Family 3 Family 4 ________ _________ _________ _________ "Item1" "Item2" "Item5" "Item3" "Item6" "Item4" "Item8" <missing> "Item7" <missing> <missing> <missing>

More Answers (1)

Peter Perkins
Peter Perkins on 13 Jun 2022
I guess this is a useful format? Voss shows one way, here's another:
>> Items = "Item" + (1:8)';
>> Family = "Family" + [1;2;4;2;3;1;1;3];
>> t = table(Items,Family);
>> t2 = rowfun(@(x)[x' repmat(missing,1,3-length(x))],t,"GroupingVariable","Family","OutputVariableName","Items")
t2 =
4×3 table
Family GroupCount Items
_________ __________ _________________________________
"Family1" 3 "Item1" "Item6" "Item7"
"Family2" 2 "Item2" "Item4" <missing>
"Family3" 2 "Item5" "Item8" <missing>
"Family4" 1 "Item3" <missing> <missing>
>> t3 = array2table(t2.Items',"VariableNames",t2.Family)
t3 =
3×4 table
Family1 Family2 Family3 Family4
_______ _________ _________ _________
"Item1" "Item2" "Item5" "Item3"
"Item6" "Item4" "Item8" <missing>
"Item7" <missing> <missing> <missing>
But I might argue that there are better ways to store these "ragged" data, for example as t2.

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