how to count unique elements of a cell in matlab?

Solution 1:

To count unique elements, you can combine UNIQUE with ACCUMARRAY

c = {'a', 'b', 'c', 'a'};
[uniqueC,~,idx] = unique(c); %# uniqueC are unique entries in c
                             %# replace the tilde with 'dummy' if pre-R2008a

counts = accumarray(idx(:),1,[],@sum); 

To produce the structure, use NUM2CELL and STRUCT:

countCell = num2cell(counts);
tmp = [uniqueC;countCell']; %'

unique_count = struct(tmp{:}) %# this evaluates to struct('a',2,'b',1,'c') 

unique_count = 
    a: 2
    b: 1
    c: 1

Solution 2:

Check out count_unique on the file exchange. It uses accumarray or sort depending upon which is the most appropriate. It will also check for nans/infs.