equivalent of isfield for tables

I'd like to know if my Matlab table has a particular column. If it was a structure I'd use isfield. Is there a built in function for this?

Answer 1

[Georges-Andre Chaudron]

I would also like to suggest using ismember()

For instance:

f1 = 1; f2 = 10; t = table(f1,f2)
t = 
    f1    f2
    __    __
    1     10

ismember('f1', t.Properties.VariableNames)
  logical
   1

It also works for a range of values:

ismember({'f0','f1','f2'}, t.Properties.VariableNames)
  1×3 logical array
   0   1   1

Answer 2

[Roger Parkyn]

This issue was also raised by Pawel Kusmierek ( 123242-why-isfield-does-not-work-with-tables-but-fieldnames-does ). He gave a reasonably tidy work-around, in short:

name_exists = any(strcmp('Var_Name',fieldnames(Table_Name)))

[Kelly Kearney]

Note that fieldnames returns all object properties, which for a table includes both variable names and the Properties structure. To get just the column/variable names, query the VariableNames property:

t = table({'one';'two'}, [1;2])

t = 

    Var1     Var2
    _____    ____

    'one'    1   
    'two'    2   

>> t.Properties.VariableNames

ans = 

    'Var1'    'Var2'

>> fieldnames(t)

ans = 

    'Var1'
    'Var2'
    'Properties'