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How to filter set of strings with set of patterns?

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I have a list of strings:
names = {'Robert', 'Bob', 'Charles', 'James', 'Jamie', 'Marie', 'Jamesbob'}
That I want to filter with a set of regular expression patterns:
patterns = {'.*ob', 'jam.*'}
How can I a list of the names which match with at least one of the patterns? (Without getting duplicates and while keeping the original order)
So would expect an output like:
{'Robert', 'Bob', 'James', 'Jamie', 'Jamesbob'}
I can find matches with a single pattern like:
regex_matches = regexpi(names, pattern{1}, 'match')
Can have multiple patterns without using a loop?
And here `regex_matches` is a cellarray of cellarrays. How would I turn this into a single level list?
(This questions sounds failry general but I couldn't find a previous question. Apologies if there is one.)

Accepted Answer

Ameer Hamza
Ameer Hamza on 11 Sep 2020
Edited: Ameer Hamza on 11 Sep 2020
Try this
names = {'Robert', 'Bob', 'Charles', 'James', 'Jamie', 'Marie', 'Jamesbob'};
patterns = {'.*ob', 'jam.*'};
regex_matches = cell(numel(patterns), numel(names));
for i=1:numel(patterns)
regex_matches(i, :) = regexpi(names, patterns{i}, 'match');
end
idx = any(~cellfun(@isempty, regex_matches));
matched_names = names(idx);
Result
>> matched_names
matched_names =
1×5 cell array
{'Robert'} {'Bob'} {'James'} {'Jamie'} {'Jamesbob'}
  2 Comments
Robert Roos
Robert Roos on 11 Sep 2020
That is gorgeous, thank you!
Does this cover the unique part? If so could, could you briefly elaborate?
Ameer Hamza
Ameer Hamza on 11 Sep 2020
It first matches patterns{1} with the elements in name names, and then matches patterns{2} and then take logical or of both results. This approach keeps the order of names in the matched_names same as names.

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