Count unique categorical values in table

My table consist of only categorical values. I try to find unique elements and how many times do they appear in my table. Not my actual data but following can be used instead:

LastName = {'Smith';'Johnson';'Williams';'Jones';'Brown'};
Age = [38;43;38;40;49];
FirstName = {'Amanda' ;'Brenda';'Carl'; 'Denis'; 'Ethan'};
Something = {'String1' ;'String2';'String2'; 'String1'; 'String5'};
Weight = [176;163;131;133;119];
FavoriteColor = {'blue' ;'red' ;'yellow'; 'orange' ;'colorblind' };
T = table(Age,FirstName,Weight,FavoriteColor,Something,'RowNames',LastName)
T.FavoriteColor= categorical(T.FavoriteColor);
T.Something= categorical(T.Something);

I think It is similar to the idea of applying a histogram function so I tried it as well but the data being categorical makes it hard. Could you help?

[Azzi Abdelmalek]

What is tNonNumeric? what type of variable?

[Ege]

tNonNumeric is a table which has categorical values in it.

Answer 1

[Mohammad Abouali]

something like this:

First your code to generate sample data:

LastName = {'Smith';'Johnson';'Williams';'Jones';'Brown'};
Age = [38;43;38;40;49];
FirstName = {'Amanda' ;'Brenda';'Carl'; 'Denis'; 'Ethan'};
Something = {'String1' ;'String2';'String2'; 'String1'; 'String5'};
Weight = [176;163;131;133;119];
FavoriteColor = {'blue' ;'red' ;'yellow'; 'orange' ;'colorblind' };
T = table(Age,FirstName,Weight,FavoriteColor,Something,'RowNames',LastName)
T.FavoriteColor= categorical(T.FavoriteColor);
T.Something= categorical(T.Something);

now getting the unique values

unqValue=unique(T.Something);

Now counting

n=arrayfun(@(x) sum(T.Something==x),unqValue);

Now plotting

bar(n)

Now first changing the unqValue from categorical to Cell array and then adding it as labels to the bar chart

unqValueCell=arrayfun(@(x) char(x(1)),unqValue,'UniformOutput',false);
set(gca,'XTickLabel',unqValueCell)

Here is the bar chart:

Answer 2

[Image Analyst]

For some reason you chose to use the original poster's code which he said wasn't working rather than either of the two answers that worked. Why? Why not try to use one of the scripts that worked?

[Ege]

He had these working, what he wanted is to find the "maximum value from the list" which is not my concern

[Image Analyst]

What he needed was the histogram. Both answers had that but his original code did not . You can use one of the Answers or try Azzi's code here.

[Ege]

Ok I figured the histogram too and Azzi's answer works well for numerical values but if we add a categorical column to it it gives error.

    LastName = {'Smith';'Johnson';'Williams';'Jones';'Brown'};
    Age = [38;43;38;40;49];
    FirstName = {'Amanda' ;'Brenda';'Carl'; 'Denis'; 'Ethan'};
    Something = {'String1' ;'String2';'String2'; 'String1'; 'String5'};
    Weight = [176;163;131;133;119];
    FavoriteColor = {'blue' ;'red' ;'yellow'; 'orange' ;'colorblind' };
    T = table(Age,FirstName,Weight,FavoriteColor,Something,'RowNames',LastName)
    T.FavoriteColor= categorical(T.FavoriteColor);
    T.Something= categorical(T.Something);
    a=T.Something
    [uniq,jj,kk]=unique(a)
    freq=histc(kk,1:numel(uniq))
    out=[uniq freq]

the result:

a =

    'String1'
    'String2'
    'String2'
    'String1'
    'String5'

uniq =

    'String1'
    'String2'
    'String5'

jj =

     1
     2
     5

kk =

     1
     2
     2
     1
     3

freq =

     2
     2
     1

Error using horzcat Dimensions of matrices being concatenated are not consistent.

Answer 3

[Azzi Abdelmalek]

Look at this example

 LastName = {'Smith';'Johnson';'Williams';'Jones';'Brown'};
Age = [38;43;38;40;40];
Height = [71;69;64;67;64];
Weight = [176;163;131;133;119];
BloodPressure = [124 93; 109 77; 125 83; 117 75; 122 80];
tNonNumeric = table(Age,Height,Weight,BloodPressure,'RowNames',LastName)
%---------------------------------------------------------------------------
a=tNonNumeric.Age
[uniq,jj,kk]=unique(a)
freq=histc(kk,1:numel(uniq))
out=[uniq freq]

[Ege]

I am getting

Error using categorical/cat (line 56)
Can not concatenate a double array and a categorical array.

Error in categorical/horzcat (line 21)
a = cat(2,varargin{:});

[Image Analyst]

I don't even see cat in Azzi's code. What are you doing?

[Ege]

because I use it in my actual table tNonNumeric which only consists of categorical values.

[Azzi Abdelmalek]

To make things easier, post a sample of your data

[Image Analyst]

If they're strings, the sizes are probably different so you'll have to create a cell array instead of a character array, which must be rectangular. See http://matlab.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ#What_is_a_cell_array.3F

[Ege]

I edited the question and added some sample data hope that helps

[Azzi Abdelmalek]

What is your question for the new example? what column? the first? or all the columns at the same time?