There are two ways to refer to the elements of a cell array:

Enclose indices in smooth parentheses, (), to refer to sets of cells—for example, to define a subset of the array;

Enclose indices in curly braces, {}, to refer to the text, numbers, or other data within individual cells.

Curly braces are used in cell array assignment statements.

>>> C={'one', 'two', 'three'; 1, 2, 3};    % C 2X3 cell

C=

   'one'  'two'  'three'

   [  1]    [  2]   [   3]

>>> C(1,2)

ans=

       'two'                                % ans 1X1 cell

>>> C{2,1}

ans=

       1                                  % ans is a number

>>> C{1,2}

ans=

       'two'                              % ans str