MATLAB: User input to change the name of an existing variable

change a variable nameuser inputvariables

I am looking to add a number to the end of my variable through user input.

For example, I have:

exp_num = input('What is the experiment number?: ')

I have a variable already labeled 'experiment', but I would like to number each experiment using a user input.

So, if the user entered '11', I would like the variable to be named experiment_11.

Again, if the user entered any number, I want the variable to be named experiment_#.

Thank you!

Best Answer

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/304528-tutorial-why-variables-should-not-be-named-dynamically-eval

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/matlab_prog/string-evaluation.html

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MATLAB: How to write a1=1;a2=2;a3=3; from A

Do NOT do this

This would actually be horribly slow, pointlessly complex, obfuscated, and very buggy way to write your code. You would make your code hard to debug, and a pain to work with. Read this to know why:

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/304528-tutorial-why-variables-should-not-be-named-dynamically-eval

Using indexing would be simple, neat, and very efficient. You should use one array and indexing. Indexing is the solution you should be using, because it is the most efficient way to write MATLAB code, is simple, neat, and very easy to debug. Indexing is explained quite well in the MATLAB introductory tutorials, which are highly recommended for all beginners:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/getting-started-with-matlab.html

MATLAB: How to change struct name in a loop

Although there is a MATLAB function to do this, but it is a very bad practice to name your variables like this. It will make your code error prone and hard to debug. Therefore I am going to suggest the correct way to solve the problem. You should create a struct array and store the input number as a field of the struct. For example

for ii=1:10
  X = input('which individual? ');
  s(i).individualNumber = X;
  s(i).length = ...;
end

It will take 10 inputs from user and store them in struct array.

Best Answer

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MATLAB: How to write a1=1;a2=2;a3=3; from A

MATLAB: How to change struct name in a loop

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