How do you get the row or column of something you need?

For example, if you had:

abc
def
ghi

Say I wanted the row and column of 'e', how would I do this? I have been looking everywhere for this and I just can't seem to find it. Please help. Thank you!

Answer 1

[Image Analyst]

[rows, columns] = find(yourMatrix == e); % e is an integer.

If e is not an integer or power of 2, see the FAQ : http://matlab.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ#Why_is_0.3_-_0.2_-_0.1_.28or_similar.29_not_equal_to_zero.3F

[Shawn Simon]

Thanks but I am using this for a wordsearch so there are many different instances of the same letter and I need to output the row and column of the first letter. When I use what you answered, I keep getting the same output of row and column equalling 1. Please help if you know the problem.

[Image Analyst]

Shawn, you did something wrong. Let's see your code. Here is correct code for letters (character array):

% Create sample array of characters
letterMatrix = char(randi([65, (65+25)], 5,10))
% Find all locations where the A is:
[rows, columns] = find(letterMatrix == 'A')

Results in command window:

letterMatrix =
EEZONLUYBE
GNWBASAFML
PBCSYZFLBG
CBMRKKWBTM
YFDUZJKTZX
rows =
     2
     2
columns =
     5
     7

You can see that it's not just (1,1). We get (2, 5) and (2, 7) which matches up with the locations you see in the displayed matrix.

[Shawn Simon]

I see what I did wrong! Thank you so much!! But I have one more question! If there are multiple instances of A, how do I get find to only output one of them?

[Walter Roberson]

You decide which position is the "first" one, and you index rows() and columns() at that same index. But how do you define which is the "first" ?

AB
BD

which 'B' is 'first' ?

[Shawn Simon]

The way that I want to implement this, is with a wordsearch. I have a 15x15 2 dimensional array filled with letters. I have created a function that runs checks throughout the array looking for the word a user inputs. With this, I am to return the row and column of the first letter of the word. So it would be like this:

 iuwekfasdkuhwqa
 kjdfjdjilihvjut
 injmatlabiliwtm
 ijghaddndldndld

And so on. The user would then use the function I created and input a word, in this case 'matlab'. The function would then output the row and column of 'm' (3rd row; 4th column). If you would like to see my code, I would gladly show you.