Looping num2str

Hi,

Assuming y = [1,2,3,4]

If I want to add a percentage to each value, I attempt to do for loop as such:

for i = 1:4

x(i) = [num2str(y(i)),'%']

end

But it doesn't work. However if I avoid the for loop and simply do:

x1 = [num2str(y(1)),'%']

x2 = [num2str(y(2)),'%']

...

..

.

x = {x1,x2,x3,x4,x5}

It works just fine. What is the problem in the for loop?

Thanks

Answer 1

[Steven Lord]

An easier way to do this is to use a string array.

y = 1:4;
x = y + " %"

x = 1×4 string array
    "1 %"    "2 %"    "3 %"    "4 %"

Answer 2

[James Tursa]

x(i) references a single element of x. However, the expression [num2str(y(i)),'%'] generates multiple characters. In essence, you are trying to assign multiple characters to a single element, and they just don't fit. Of course, you can use cell arrays for this as you have discovered, since cell array elements can contain entire variables regardless of size or class. Using cell arrays also works in case some strings are longer than others.

Note, you could have just used the curly braces in your for loop to generate the cell array result:

for i = 1:4
    x{i} = [num2str(y(i)),'%'];
end

Or generated the cell array result directly with arrayfun:

x = arrayfun(@(a)[num2str(a),'%'],y,'uni',false);