Store Variable name as Sequence 't1', 't2', 't3',.......

I have a problem naming my VariableNames in my array2table.

years={'t1','t2','t3','t4','t5','t6','t7','t8','t9','t10','t11','t12','t13','t14','t15','t16','t17','t18','t19','t20'};

I = array2table(A,'VariableNames', years)

Is there any other way to make a sequence for years? My end date t20 can vary and I don't want to change the variablename each time I want to change my end date.

[Dennis]

As a rule of thumb, when you are typing x1,x2,x3 ... you are usually doing something wrong ;)

for ii=1:size(A,2)
      years{ii}=strcat('t',num2str(ii));
end

[Stephen23]

@Dennis: why is this? I don't see any code or efficiency disadvantages for naming table variables like this. Certainly the names could be more descriptive... but what are the problems that you foresee with this?

It seems to me that years would normally be rows of a table (rather than variables), which would allow processing and grouping of the data by year.

[Dennis]

I think it is not very efficient to type numbers from 1 to 20, do you think its still a viable option for 1 to 200?

[Stephen23]

@Dennis: Why would I need to type them all out? Any of compose, or arrayfun, or (the sadly undocumented) sprintfc can easily generate those names for me, as well as other fancy methods using sprintf and split or regexp. Or your nice little loop.

[Dennis]

That was exactly my point? You shouldnt type x1,x2,x3...

[Stephen23]

@Dennis: aaahhh... so it was just the "lots of typing" that you were commenting on, not the name format itself?

[Dennis]

yes, sorry if i wasn't clear.

[Cinko]

@Dennis That works great. Thank you.

Answer 1

[Guillaume]

years = compose('t%d', 1:20);

[Cinko]

that gives the error: Undefined function 'compose' for input arguments of type 'char'.

[Guillaume]

compose requires R2016b or later. You must be on an earlier version. You can use sprintfc instead but be aware that this function is undocumented

years = sprintfc('t%d', 1:20);  %note that sprintfc is undocumented. In this case, it behaves like compose introduced in R2016b

If using undocumented functions is not your thing, then

years = arrayfun(@(n) sprintf('t%d', n), 1:20, 'UniformOutput', false);

[Cinko]

okay thank you