How do I remove duplicates from a structure array?
13 views (last 30 days)
Show older comments
Suppose I create the following structure:
animals(1).name='Northern Mockingbird';
animals(1).class='Bird';
animals(2).name='Cheetah';
animals(2).class='mammal';
animals(3).name='Wolf';
animals(3).class='mammal';
animals(4).name='Eagle';
animals(4).class='Bird';
animals(5).name='Turtle';
animals(5).class='Reptile';
animals(6).name='Bee';
animals(6).class='Insect';
animals(7).name='Chameleon';
animals(7).class='Reptile';
animals(8).name='Barn Spider';
animals(8).class='Arachnid';
animals(9).name='Ant';
animals(9).class='Insect';
animals(10).name='Northern Cardinal';
animals(10).class='Bird';
Then I set animals(11) equal to animals(4), then I sort the whole thing through a littany of conversions/reshapings, the sortrows command and another littany of conversions/reshapings.
Is there some way to remove the duplicate entries from that array of structures?
0 Comments
Accepted Answer
Azzi Abdelmalek
on 16 May 2013
Edited: Azzi Abdelmalek
on 16 May 2013
a= {animals.name}
b= {animals.class}
c=cellfun(@(x,y) [x y],a', b','un',0)
[ii,ii]=unique(c,'stable')
animals=animals(ii)
2 Comments
Azzi Abdelmalek
on 16 May 2013
Edited: Azzi Abdelmalek
on 16 May 2013
%or
[ii,ii]=unique({animals.name},'stable')
animals=animals(ii)
Because if the name is the same, the class should be the same.
More Answers (1)
Jonathan Sullivan
on 16 May 2013
It's not pretty, but this should work:
isUnique = true(size(animals));
for ii = 1:length(animals)-1
for jj = ii+1:length(animals)
if isequal(animals(ii),animals(jj))
isUnique(ii) = false;
break;
end
end
end
animals(~isUnique) = [];
2 Comments
John King
on 5 May 2021
Wow, only had to schange the name from "animals" to my struct name and this worked for me! Thank you Jonathan!
See Also
Categories
Find more on Structures in Help Center and File Exchange
Community Treasure Hunt
Find the treasures in MATLAB Central and discover how the community can help you!
Start Hunting!