split numbers separated by commas in a sub cell array into their own column

I have a 18x1 cell array filled with numbers. Each cell of the array has a different size. How do I split each cell so there are no longer any subcells. I tried using cell2mat but since each column in the sub cell is of different size it did not work.

This is what the cell array looks like now

and this is what I am attempting to make it look like

[the cyclist]

Can you upload the variable in a mat file, using the paper clip icon? An image of the data is not useful for testing.

[Ean Hendrickson]

here you go, I feel like it should be really simple but I have been struggling for a while with this.

Answer 1

[Adam Danz]

You were on the right track with cell2mat but first you have to pad the arrays so they are all equal length. Two of the three lines below use cellfun().

% Max number of elements within each vector
nMax = max(cellfun(@numel,section_2_1)); 

% Pad all cell elements with 0 so each cell element has equal length
x = cellfun(@(x)[x,zeros(1,nMax-numel(x))],section_2_1,'UniformOutput',false); 

% Output matrix
m = cell2mat(x); 

[Ean Hendrickson]

Awesome thank you Adam! very helpful

[Ean Hendrickson]

what exactly does the @ do in '@numel' and '@(x)'. I know numel finds number of elements, but I have not seen any documentation as to what the @ does

[Adam Danz]

@ creates an anonymous function. Cellfun applies that function to each element of the cell array.

Here's a different example of an anonymous function

f = @(a,b,c) a + b * c; 

y = f(1,3,5)

[Ean Hendrickson]

thank you, you are awesome

[Adam Danz]

Glad I could help!