Convert cell string with commas and spaces to vector

Question

I tried to convert the cell x:

x(1,:) = {'35,35, ,35'}; 
x(2,:) = {'40,40,30,40'};
x(3,:) = {'10, , ,'};

to a matrix with:

R = cell2mat(cellfun(@str2num,x,'un',0));

but the outcome omits the first row:

 R =

    40    40    30    40

but I was expecting:

 R =

    35    35     0    35
    40    40    30    40
    10     0     0     0

How can this be done? thanks!

Answer 1

Split x by ,, convert to double using str2double and fill the missing values with 0 as follows:

R = fillmissing(str2double(split(x,',')),'constant',0);

>> R
R =
   35   35    0   35
   40   40   30   40
   10    0    0    0

^{Note: Avoid using str2num since it is implemented using eval. Read the security considerations and unintended side effects of using that in the documentation for details.}