sorting items stored as into two groups

i have 30 nba teams stored as categorical and i am trying to sort each one into either west or east conference.

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

Create one categorical for West, and one for East, and combine:

W = categorical({'Kings', 'Flames'})

W = 1×2 categorical array
     Kings      Flames 

E = categorical({'Bruins', 'Canadiens'})

E = 1×2 categorical array
     Bruins      Canadiens 

B = [W,E]

B = 1×4 categorical array
     Kings      Flames      Bruins      Canadiens 

Now you can

top2 = {'Bruins', 'Kings'}

top2 = 1×2 cell array
    {'Bruins'}    {'Kings'}

ismember(top2, categories(W))

ans = 1×2 logical array
   0   1

ismember(top2, categories(E))

ans = 1×2 logical array
   1   0