I have a an ecxel table that is updated inside excel after being generated in MATLAB with a column of some user text comments- these comments are not always present. I would like to add new rows and often duplicate rows to this table, but the new/duplicate rows will never contain comments. In the event there is a duplicate row added for the key variables, I would like to preserve the comment from the excel file if it is present, otherwise it will remain or be created as blank.
Not sure the best approach here- my various attempts at joins are not working well.
Here is an example of the excel file with comments and some new data containing duplicate rows:
excel=readtable('commented.xlsx')
excel =
Date Time Value Comment
____________ __________ _____ _____________
{'20220912'} {'015304'} 0.1 {0×0 char }
{'20220912'} {'172427'} 0 {0×0 char }
{'20220914'} {'002824'} -0.7 {0×0 char }
{'20220915'} {'042702'} -0.7 {'Windy Day'}
{'20220915'} {'170959'} 0.2 {0×0 char }
{'20220916'} {'231015'} -0.9 {0×0 char }
newdata
newdata =
Date Time Value
____________ __________ _____
{'20220913'} {'087626'} -0.4
{'20220914'} {'002824'} -0.7
{'20220915'} {'042702'} -0.7
{'20220915'} {'170959'} 0.2
{'20220916'} {'231015'} -0.9
{'20220917'} {'115816'} -0.8
The answer would look like this- all new rows from newdata are addded, but when there are duplicate Date/Time that have a comment, that comment is preserved, ('20220915' '042702' would keep the 'Windy Day' comment) Otherwise, the Comment variable is an empty char cell.
answer
answer =
Date Time Value Comment
____________ __________ _____ _____________
{'20220912'} {'015304'} 0.1 {0×0 char }
{'20220912'} {'172427'} 0 {0×0 char }
{'20220913'} {'087626'} -0.4 {0×0 char }
{'20220914'} {'002824'} -0.7 {0×0 char }
{'20220915'} {'042702'} -0.7 {'Windy Day'}
{'20220915'} {'170959'} 0.2 {0×0 char }
{'20220916'} {'231015'} -0.9 {0×0 char }
{'20220917'} {'115816'} -0.8 {0×0 char }
