How to subtract contents of cells in cell array?

Hi,

I am trying to get the euclidean distances from xyz coordinates (columns 1-3 of baskets_xyz cells) to a reference point (column 10 in each cell in baskets_xyz). I want to perform the euclidean distance calculation to each cell in baskets_xyz so that I receive a single column for each cell as an output. I have tried the following code:

H = @(x) sqrt(((x(:,1)-x(:,10)).^2) ...
            + ((x(:,2)-x(:,10)).^2) ...
            + ((x(:,3)-x(:,10)).^2));
        
baskets_xyz_h_ref = cellfun(H,baskets_xyz,'uniform',false);

When I run this code I get the error:

Undefined function 'minus' for input arguments of type 'cell'.

Error in Glitch_comparison_distances (line 96)

H = @(x) sqrt(((x(:,1)-x(:,10)).^2) ...

Answer 1

[per isakson]

The problem is that baskets_xyz is a cell array of cell arrays. Your cellfun statements requires a cell array of double (numeric). There is (R2018b) an obsolete function, flatten, which can be used to convert to a cell array of double.

(Because of the size I don't upload a copy baskets_xyz.mat.)

The code below does the trick without flatten.

% baskets_xyz
% baskets_xyz =
%   1×19 cell array
%   Columns 1 through 3
%     {1617×10 cell}    {846×10 cell}    {3812×10 cell}
%%
cell_of_double = cellfun( @(c) cell2mat(c), baskets_xyz, 'uni',false );
H = @(x) sqrt(((x(:,1)-x(:,10)).^2) ...
            + ((x(:,2)-x(:,10)).^2) ...
            + ((x(:,3)-x(:,10)).^2));

baskets_xyz_h_ref = cellfun( H, cell_of_double, 'uni',false );
% baskets_xyz_h_ref =
%   1×19 cell array
%   Columns 1 through 3
%     {1617×1 double}    {846×1 double}    {3812×1 double}

[lil brain]

Very helpful thank you!