matlab workspace accessing multiple variables with similar names

Question

I have a list of files that have data ...

    foo1.txt
    foo2.txt
    ...
    fooN.txt

I extract the data in these files

    foo1
    foo2
    ...
    fooN

I now want to pass these variables to a function

   for i = 1:N
       % This is what I want: asdf = fooi
       function(asdf)
   end

I tried sprintf, and also

    asdf = ['foo' num2str(i)]

But these make the variable asdf a char, instead of a double like fooi.

Thanks in advance.

-gsandhu

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:19

2

Immidiate solution

asdf = eval( sprintf('foo%d',i) );

However this is not a good practice in general.
What you should do is read the files into cell-elements foo{1} will have the contents of foo1.txt, foo{2} will have the contents of foo2.txt and so on. This way you can simply access foo{i} and get the data you need.

PS,
It is best not to use i as a variable name in Matlab.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:19

Community

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1

answered Nov 19 '13 at 18:08

Shai

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1.) Thank you for the solution. – gsandhu Nov 19 '13 at 18:17
1

2.) And more importantly, thank you for the cell array suggestion. – gsandhu Nov 19 '13 at 18:18
1

@gsandhu I'm happy I could assist. If this solution works for you, please consider "accepting" it be clicking the "V" icon beside it. – Shai Nov 19 '13 at 20:42

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 19 '13 at 18:09

0

You can use eval function

eval(['foo' num2str(i)])

answered Nov 19 '13 at 18:09

P0W

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matlab workspace accessing multiple variables with similar names

2 Answers2