function that adds element to cell in matlab

To add an element to a cell array in Matlab using a function, you can use the built-in function cat. The cat function concatenates the input arguments along a specified dimension.

Here is an example function to add an element to a cell array:

main.m
function new_cell_array = add_element_to_cell(original_cell_array, element, index)
    % Adds an element to a cell array
    % Inputs:
    %   original_cell_array: the original cell array
    %   element: the element to add to the cell array
    %   index: the index in the cell array where the element should be added
    % Output:
    %   new_cell_array: the updated cell array
    
    % Concatenate the original cell array with the new element along the first dimension
    new_cell_array = cat(1, original_cell_array(1:index-1), {element}, original_cell_array(index:end));
end
582 chars
13 lines

In this function, we first use indexing to extract the portions of the original cell array before and after the index where the new element should be added. We then use the cat function to concatenate these portions with the new element, which is encapsulated in a cell array {} to ensure that it is added as a single element.

You can call this function with the original cell array, the new element, and the index where you want to add the new element as arguments.

main.m
my_cell_array = {'abc', 123, [4 5 6]};
new_element = 'new';
index = 2;
new_cell_array = add_element_to_cell(my_cell_array, new_element, index);
144 chars
5 lines

After executing this code, new_cell_array will be: {'abc', 'new', 123, [4 5 6]}.