How can I remove duplicates in an array but keep the same order?

Question

I have this cell array in MATLAB:

y = { \'d\' \'f\' \'a\' \'g\' \'g\' \'a\' \'w\' \'h\'}

I use unique(y) to get rid of the dup

Answer 1

Here's one solution that uses some additional input and output arguments that UNIQUE has:

>> y = { 'd' 'f' 'a' 'g' 'g' 'a' 'w' 'h'};  %# Sample data
>> [~,index] = unique(y,'first');        %# Capture the index, ignore the actual values
>> y(sort(index))                           %# Index y with the sorted index

ans = 

    'd'    'f'    'a'    'g'    'w'    'h'