how to find minimum time format for each row of a cell array?

Hi all, I have a 4*21 cell array named all_dis. the elements of this cell array may be empty or a time format value such as '00:00:21' .

I want to get the minimum Time(with its location) on each row of this cell array . Any help is really appreciated .

Answer 1

[Azzi Abdelmalek]

all_dis={'00:00:21'    '00:00:23' '';'12:00:21'   []  '11:00:23' }
a=cellfun(@datenum,all_dis,'un',0)
a(cellfun(@isempty,a))={inf}
b=datestr(min(cell2mat(a)'),'HH:MM:SS')

[saharsahar]

Thanks, it solves my problem and give the min time values. but is there anyway to get the index of min values in all_dis , as well?

Thanks again

[Azzi Abdelmalek]

all_dis={'00:00:21'    '00:00:23' '';'12:00:21'   []  '11:00:23' }
a=cellfun(@datenum,all_dis,'un',0)
a(cellfun(@isempty,a))={inf}
[b,idx]=min(cell2mat(a)')
b=datestr(b,'HH:MM:SS')
idx

[saharsahar]

Great ! Thank you very Much

Answer 2

[dpb]

Make up some short sample data...including an empty cell

Matl
>> tt{:}
ans = 
  '00:00:21'
ans = 
  '13:12:10'    '00:10:01'
ans =
   []
>> dn=cellfun(@datenum,tt,'uniformoutput',false);  % convert to datenums
>> [tmin,tloc]=cellfun(@min,dn,'uniformoutput',false); % find minimum, loc
>> % Display the minimum times in string form to show found 'em
>> cellfun(@(x) datestr(x,'HH:MM:SS'),tmin,'uniformoutput',false)
ans = 
  '00:00:21'    '00:10:01'    [0x8 char]
>> % And the locations in the rows
>> tloc{:}
ans =
   1
ans =
   2
ans =
   []
>>

Salt to suit...