Assigning multiple variables to inputdlg's output string

Hi,

I need to have the user enter multiple values and then for each value to be assigned as a number to a variable.

The current code I have is:

prompt = {'Enter value 1','Enter value 2','3','4','5','6'};
dlg_title = 'Enter values';
num_lines = 1;
defaultans = {'1','5','5','7','2','11'}
Params = inputdlg(prompt, dlg_title, num_lines, defaultans);
[a,b,c,d,e,f] = str2double(Params{:});

However this gives the error:

Error using str2double

Too many input arguments.

Any help would be great, thanks.

Answer 1

[Stephen23]

This is easy using a comma-separated list:

prompt = {'Enter value 1','Enter value 2','3','4','5','6'};
defaultans = {'1','5','5','7','2','11'};
Params = inputdlg(prompt, 'MyTitle', 1, defaultans);
C = num2cell(str2double(Params));
[a,b,c,d,e,f] = C{:}

a =
     1
b =
     5
c =
     5
d =
     7
e =
     2
f =
    11

[Jan]

+1: Perfect. I'm not sure if the indirection over num2cell is faster, but it is much nicer than a subfunction with a loop and varargout.

[Stephen23]

@Jan Simon: I guess the num2cell is going to add a little bit of time, but considering that inputdlg waits many seconds for the user to input a few values, those few milliseconds are unlikely to be noticed.

Answer 2

[Jan]

data = str2double(Params);

If you really want to split this to 5 variables:

a = data(1);
b = data(2);
c = data(3);
d = data(4);
e = data(5);

But either use smarter names for the variables or keep them as a vector, if it matchs the underlying problem.

[EDITED] If you really want to split the vector to different variables, you can do this with a small function:

function varargout = SplitToVars(data)
if nargout ~= numel(data)
  error('Number of inputs does not match number of outputs.');
end
for iVar = 1:numel(data)
  varargout{iVar} = data(iVar);
end
end

[Henreee]

Thanks for the reply,

The code I put on here was just an example, the actual has a lot more inputs. Is there a way to assign all of the variables at once? I tried

[a,b,c,d,e,f,g,etc] = data(:);

But it gives the error

Insufficient number of outputs from right hand side of equal sign to satisfy assignment.

Even though there are the same number of variables as numbers in data.

Thanks!

[Jan]

@Henreee: Even if the number of variables equals the number of data, this is no valid Matlab syntax. Of course this produces an error. You could write a small function for this. See [EDITED] in my answer.