MATLAB: How to allow empty inputs in for loop

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Hi everyone. I am trying to make a script that takes inputs to calculate thermal resistance of composite walls. I want the script to be able to take empty inputs and replace them with zeros without changing the size of the input matrix, if some of the data are not available. Here's what I tried:
no_plt = input('number of plate =');
A = input('frontal area of plate =');
if isempty(A)
    A = 1;
end
k = zeros(1,no_plt);
x = zeros(1,no_plt);
if no_plt == 1
    k = input('plate conductivity =');
    x = input('plate thickness =');
else
    for m = 1:no_plt
        k(m) = input (sprintf('conductivity of plate %d =',m));
        if isempty (k(m))
            k(m) = 0;
        end
        x(m) = input (sprintf('thickness of plate %d =',m));
        if isempty (x(m))
            x(m) = 0;
        end
    end
end
And it failed miserably. Here's the error I got:
In an assignment A(I) = B, the number of elements in B and I must be the same.
I read a very similiar question asked in this forum, but somehow it couldn't help me. And I am not sure I understand the solution either :). Could someone point out where my mistakes are, and explain it to me? I am new to matlab, so please go easy on me if the mistakes are obvious. Thanks in advance.

Best Answer

In short you cannot do a(1)=[]; where as you can do a temp=[];
try this...
no_plt = input('number of plate =');
A = input('frontal area of plate =');
if isempty(A)
      A = 1;
  end
k = zeros(1,no_plt);
x = zeros(1,no_plt);
if no_plt == 1
      k = input('plate conductivity =');
      x = input('plate thickness =');
  else
      for m = 1:no_plt
          temp1 = input (sprintf('conductivity of plate %d =',m));
          if isempty (temp1)
              k(m) = 0;
  else
  k(m) = temp1;
          end
          temp2 = input (sprintf('thickness of plate %d =',m));
          if isempty (temp2)
              x(m) = 0;
  else
  x(m)=temp2;
          end
      end
  end
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