addRow to TimeIntervals not working as expected

[JustinKillebrew]

I'm trying to convert a struct of trial parameters and behavior to the Intervals section of the nwb file. I can create the TimeIntervals and manually add a row but I cannot build a string and then add it. Is this a Matlab string issue or an MATNWB issue? Any suggestions on how to proceed?

Thanks,
JK

`

trials = types.core.TimeIntervals('colnames', fieldNames(1:3), 'description', 'foobar');
trials.addRow('start_time', '0.1', 'stop_time', '1.2', 'fpOn', 'NaN')
trials.toTable

ans =

1×4 table

id    start_time    stop_time     fpOn  
__    __________    _________    _______

0      {'0.1'}       {'1.2'}     {'NaN'}

rowStr= "'start_time', '0.1', 'stop_time', '1.2', 'fpOn', 'NaN'"

rowStr =

"'start_time', '0.1', 'stop_time', '1.2', 'fpOn', 'NaN'"

disp(rowStr)
'start_time', '0.1', 'stop_time', '1.2', 'fpOn', 'NaN'
trials.addRow(rowStr)
Error using types.util.dynamictable.addVarargRow (line 11)
No value was given for ''start_time', '0.1', 'stop_time', '1.2', 'fpOn', 'NaN''. Name-value pair arguments require a name followed by a
value.

Error in types.util.dynamictable.addRow (line 47)
types.util.dynamictable.addVarargRow(DynamicTable, varargin{:});
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Error in types.hdmf_common.DynamicTable/addRow (line 111)
types.util.dynamictable.addRow(obj, varargin{:});
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^`

[oruebel]

Is this a Matlab string issue or an MATNWB issue?

addRow expects name-value pairs as separate arguments. However, it looks like you are trying to pass a single string containing all the arguments. MATLAB doesn't automatically parse a string into separate arguments. If you want to construct rowData as a single argument, I think you would need to use a struct:

rowData = struct('start_time', 0.1, 'stop_time', 1.2, 'fpOn', NaN);
trials.addRow(rowData);

or a cell-array

rowArgs = {'start_time', 0.1, 'stop_time', 1.2, 'fpOn', NaN};
trials.addRow(rowArgs{:});  % The {:} expands the cell array

[JustinKillebrew]

Thanks for the help. Using a cell-array works - the key (that I was missing) is the expansion, rowArgs{:}.

JK