Can you group data with similar written column headings on xlswrite, matlab? - excel

Question

Very new to matlab and still learning the basics. I'm trying to write a script which calculates the distance between two peaks in a waveform. That part I have managed to do, and I have used xlswrite to put the values I have obtained onto an excel file.
For each file, I have between about 50-250 columns, with just two rows: the second row has the numerical value, and the first has the column headings, copied from original excel files I extracted the data from.
Some of the columns have similar, but not identical, headings, e.g. 'green227RightEyereading3' and 'green227RightEyereading4' etc. Is there a way I can group columns with similar headings, e.g. which have the same number/colour in the heading (I.e.green227) and either 'right eye' or 'left eye', and calculate an average of their numerical values? Link to file here: >https://www.dropbox.com/s/ezpyjr3raol31ts/SampleBatchForTesting.xls?dl=0>
>[Excel_file,PathName] = uigetfile('*.xls', 'Pick a File','C:\Users\User\Documents\Optometry\Year 3\Dissertation\A-scan3');
>[~,name,ext] = fileparts(Excel_file);
>sheet = 2;
>FullXLSfile = [PathName, Excel_file];
>[number_data,txt_data,raw_data] = xlsread(FullXLSfile,sheet);
>HowManyWide = size(txt_data);
>NumberOfTitles = HowManyWide(1,2);
>xlRangeA = txt_data;
>Chickens = {'Test'};
>for f = 1:xlRangeA; %%defined as top line of cells on sheet;
>Text = xlRangeA{f};
>HyphenLocations = find(Text == '-');
>R = HyphenLocations(1,1) -1;
>Chick = Text(1:R);
>Chick = cellstr(Chick);
>B = length(Chick);
>TF = strncmp(Chickens,Chick,B);
>if any(TF == 1); %do nothing
>else
>Chickens = {Chickens;Chick};
>end
>end
Here also is a link to the file that is created when I run my entire script. The values below the headings are the calculated thickesses of the tissue I'm analysing. https://www.dropbox.com/s/4p6iu9kk75ecyzl/Choroid_Thickness.xls?dl=0
Thanks very much

Answer 1

If the different characters are located at the very end (or the very beginning) of the heading, you can go with strncmp buit-in function and compare only part of the string. See more here. But please, provide some code and a part of your excel file. It would help.
Also, if I am not mistaken, you are saving all the data into excel and then re-call it again in order to sort it. Maybe you should consider saving only the final result in excel, it will save you some time, especially if you want to run your script many times.
EDIT:
Here is the code I came up with. It is not the best possible solution for sure, but it works with the file you uploaded. I have omitted the unnecessary lines and variables. The code works only if the numbers of each reading have the same amount of digits. They can be 4 digits as long as every entry has 4 digits. Since in each file you have waves of the same color, the only thing that you care about is whether the reading was recorded with the left or the right eye (correct?). Based on that and the code you wrote, the comparison concerns the part of the string that contains the words "Right" or "Left", i.e. the characters between the hyphens.
[Excel_file,PathName] = uigetfile('*.xls', 'Pick a File',...
'C:\Users\User\Documents\Optometry\Year 3\Dissertation\A-scan3');
sheet = 1;
FullXLSfile = [PathName,Excel_file];
[number_data,txt_data,raw_data] = xlsread(FullXLSfile,sheet);
%% data manipulation
NumberOfTitles = length(txt_data);
TextToCompare = txt_data{1};
r1 = 1; % counter for Readings1 vector
r2 = 1; % counter for Readings2 vector
for ff = 1:NumberOfTitles % in your code xlRangeA is a cell vector not a number!
Text = txt_data{ff};
HyphenLocations = find(Text == '-');
Text = Text(HyphenLocations(1,1):HyphenLocations(1,2)); % take only the part that contains the "eye" information
TextToCompare = TextToCompare(HyphenLocations(1,1):HyphenLocations(1,2)); % same here
if (Text == TextToCompare)
Readings1(r1) = number_data(ff); % store the numerical value in a vector
r1 = r1 + 1; % increase the counter of this vector
else
Readings2(r2) = number_data(ff); % same here
r2 = r2 + 1;
end
TextToCompare = txt_data{1}; % TextToCompare re-initialized for the next comparison
end
mean_readings1 = mean(Readings1); % Find the mean of the grouped values
mean_readings2 = mean(Readings2);
I am positive that this can be done in a more efficient and delicate way. I don't know exactly what kind of calculations you want to do so I only included the mean values as an example. Inside the if statement you can also store the txt_data if you need it. Below I have also included a second way which I find more delicate. Just substitute the %%data manipulation part with the part below if you want to test it:
%% more delicate way
Text_Vector = char(txt_data);
TextToCompare2 = txt_data{1};
HyphenLocations2 = find(TextToCompare2 == '-');
TextToCompare2 = TextToCompare2(HyphenLocations2(1,1):HyphenLocations2(1,2));
Text_Vector = Text_Vector(:,HyphenLocations2(1,1):HyphenLocations2(1,2));
Text_Vector = cellstr(Text_Vector);
dummy = strcmpi(Text_Vector,TextToCompare2);
Readings1 = number_data(dummy);
Readings2 = number_data(~dummy);
I hope this helps.