Find indices in a structure array by comparing the name

I have struct array that is similar like that:

Block.name=                     {'Time','Signal_x','Signal_y','Signal_z'};
Block.channel(1).values=       1:10;        %time vetor for all signals in this struct
Block.channel(2).values=       rand(1,10);  %correspoinding values of Signal_x
Block.channel(3).values=       rand(1,10);  %correspoinding values of Signal_y
Block.channel(4).values=       rand(1,10);  %correspoinding values of Signal_z

Now I want to pick out the values of a certain signal, assuming I know the name of the signal but I don't know the order of channels.

Name_desiredSignal=         'Signal_y';     %e.g. values of the Signal_y

I know I can do this by a loop like this:

for idx=2:length(Block.name)                %I know that the first channel is always the time vector
    if(strcmp(Block.name(idx),Name_desiredSignal))
        channel_Nr= idx;
    end

Once I have the channel number/index, I can easily get it:

    desiredSignal=  Block.channel(channel_Nr).values;

I wonder if there is a smarter way, which avoids the loop?

Thanks for help!

Answer 1

[Ameer Hamza]

That for-loop is same as

channel_Nr = find(contains(Block.name, Name_desiredSignal));

[Gerhard Weiss]

Thanks, works!

Answer 2

[Gerhard Weiss]

Unfortunately, I noticed afterwards that my struct array in my real code is different as I wrote above.

Actually it looks like this:

%Block.name=                     {'Time','Signal_x','Signal_y','Signal_z'}; % wrong simplification
Block.channel(1).name=         'Time';
Block.channel(1).values=       1:10;
Block.channel(2).name=         'Signal_x';
Block.channel(2).values=       rand(1,10);
Block.channel(3).name=         'Signal_y'; 
Block.channel(3).values=       rand(1,10);
Block.channel(4).name=       'Signal_z';
Block.channel(4).values=       rand(1,10);

Name_desiredSignal=         'Signal_y';

for this struct the suggested solution by Ameer does not work (because the suggested solution was for a different probelm, I know):

channel_Nr = find(contains(Block.channel.name, Name_desiredSignal))
Error using contains (line 52)
Unrecognized parameter name 'Signal_y'. Parameter name must be 'IgnoreCase'.

but a loop works which I would like to avoid:

for idx=2:length(Block.channel)
    if(contains(Block.channel(idx).name,Name_desiredSignal))
        channel_Nr= idx;
    end
        
end

Any ideas?

[Ameer Hamza]

Still easy peasy:

channel_Nr = find(contains({Block.channel.name}, Name_desiredSignal))

[Gerhard Weiss]

Thanks again. Works for both, my example code and my real code.

[Ameer Hamza]

I am glad to be of help!