How do I search for an integer array in a cell array in Matlab?

Question

Suppose I have a cell array containing an array of integer arrays. What is the best way to search the cell array for a specific array and return true if it exists and false otherwise?

Answer 1

You can use cellfun combined with isequal :

For example:

cellArr = {[1 2 3],'xcxc',magic(5),1:3};
element = [1 2 3];
indexes = cellfun( @(x)isequal(x,element),cellArr);

This will give you an array that contains true in the cells that the element exists. In order to check whether the element exists at least once, just use:

any(indexes)