How to extract number from what should be a string

Hey

I sure hope someone can help me. I could not find any solutions to my problem in the forum questions.

I am trying to extract a number from "textdata(1,1)" that I thought contained a string, but seems to contain a "cell". Is there any solution to get the number?

Thanks in advance

Rasmus Kirkegaard

>> textdata(1,1)

ans =

    '#Binsizes  2000000'

>> s = '#Binsizes 2000000';

>> A = sscanf(s,'%*s %f')

A =

     2000000

>> A = sscanf(textdata(1,1),'%*s %f')

Error using sscanf

First argument must be a string.

>> class(textdata(1,1))

ans =

cell

Answer 1

[Wayne King]

Can you use char()?

textdata = {{'teststring'}};
class(textdata{1})
% but

output = char(textdata{1});
class(output), output

[Rasmus]

Yes, that works gr8 ;D

Thanks a lot!

Rasmus Kirkegaard

Answer 2

[the cyclist]

I think you just need to use:

>> A = sscanf(textdata{1,1},'%*s %f')

Notice the curly brackets instead of parentheses. This way, you will access the contents of the cell, rather than the cell itself.