How to format a series of filenames with different characters as endings?

I am currently trying to find a way to create an array of filenames which all start with 'Channel01' but have different characters as endings. In the end I would want names which look like this: 'Channel01a', Channel01b', 'Channel01c', ... , 'Channel01t' and they should be stored under one variable.

I tried to the use of cellfun and sprintf:

unitletters = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'h', 'i', 'j', 'k', 'l','m', 'n', 'o','p', 'q', 'r', 's', 't']
units_filenames = cellfun(@x sprintf('Channel01%c',x),unitletters,'UniformOutput',false)

However, I always get an error message. Does anyone have an idea how to solve this issue?

[Stephen23]

Note that square brackets are a concatentation operator, so this line:

unitletters = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'h', 'i', 'j', 'k', 'l','m', 'n', 'o','p', 'q', 'r', 's', 't']

is trivially equivalent to

unitletters = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrst'

which is simpler and more robust using the colon operator:

unitletters = 'a':'t'

Answer 1

[Voss]

Make unitletters a cell array, using {}, and fix your cellfun syntax:

unitletters = {'a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'h', 'i', 'j', 'k', 'l','m', 'n', 'o','p', 'q', 'r', 's', 't'}

unitletters = 1×20 cell array
    {'a'}    {'b'}    {'c'}    {'d'}    {'e'}    {'f'}    {'g'}    {'h'}    {'i'}    {'j'}    {'k'}    {'l'}    {'m'}    {'n'}    {'o'}    {'p'}    {'q'}    {'r'}    {'s'}    {'t'}

units_filenames = cellfun(@(x)sprintf('Channel01%c',x),unitletters,'UniformOutput',false)

units_filenames = 1×20 cell array
    {'Channel01a'}    {'Channel01b'}    {'Channel01c'}    {'Channel01d'}    {'Channel01e'}    {'Channel01f'}    {'Channel01g'}    {'Channel01h'}    {'Channel01i'}    {'Channel01j'}    {'Channel01k'}    {'Channel01l'}    {'Channel01m'}    {'Channel01n'}    {'Channel01o'}    {'Channel01p'}    {'Channel01q'}    {'Channel01r'}    {'Channel01s'}    {'Channel01t'}

Or use the unitletters you had, which is a character array, and instead of cellfun/sprintf, use sprintfc:

unitletters = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'h', 'i', 'j', 'k', 'l','m', 'n', 'o','p', 'q', 'r', 's', 't']

unitletters = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrst'

units_filenames = sprintfc('Channel01%c',unitletters)

units_filenames = 1×20 cell array
    {'Channel01a'}    {'Channel01b'}    {'Channel01c'}    {'Channel01d'}    {'Channel01e'}    {'Channel01f'}    {'Channel01g'}    {'Channel01h'}    {'Channel01i'}    {'Channel01j'}    {'Channel01k'}    {'Channel01l'}    {'Channel01m'}    {'Channel01n'}    {'Channel01o'}    {'Channel01p'}    {'Channel01q'}    {'Channel01r'}    {'Channel01s'}    {'Channel01t'}

[Simon]

Thanks a lot! This worked just as I wanted it to :)

Answer 2

[Walter Roberson]

unitletters = 'a':'t';

units_filenames = "Channel01" + unitletters.'

units_filenames = 20×1 string array
    "Channel01a"
    "Channel01b"
    "Channel01c"
    "Channel01d"
    "Channel01e"
    "Channel01f"
    "Channel01g"
    "Channel01h"
    "Channel01i"
    "Channel01j"
    "Channel01k"
    "Channel01l"
    "Channel01m"
    "Channel01n"
    "Channel01o"
    "Channel01p"
    "Channel01q"
    "Channel01r"
    "Channel01s"
    "Channel01t"

[Simon]

Thanks for your answer, too. Also a nice way to do it. The other solution just came in a bit more handy for my problem.