How can I extract a word from a vector, instead of a number?

apples=1;
pears=2;
melons=3;
oranges=0;

w=[apples pears melons oranges];
maximum=max(w)

Instead of getting a number, I want to get a word. That is, instead of getting "maximum=3", I want to get "maximum=melons"

Thanks!

Answer 1

[Azzi Abdelmalek]

Create a structure array with name and num fields.

w=struct('name',{'apples'  'pears' 'melons' 'oranges'},'num',{1 2 3 0})
fruit_names={w.name}
fruit_numbers=[w.num]
idx=max(fruit_numbers)
maximum=fruit_names{idx}

[Marcela Ruiz de Chávez]

Thank you!

[Marcela Ruiz de Chávez]

This structure array does not work for vectors?

[Marcela Ruiz de Chávez]

How can I create the array from a vector?

I have the vector:

x=[1 2 3 0]

I want to put it like this, but it doesn't work:

w=struct('name',{'apples'  'pears' 'melons' 'oranges'},'num',{x(1) x(2) x(3) x(4)})
fruit_names={w.name}
fruit_numbers=[w.num]
idx=max(fruit_numbers)
maximum=fruit_names{idx}

[Azzi Abdelmalek]

No it works

x=[1 2 3 0];
w=struct('name',{'apples'  'pears' 'melons' 'oranges'},'num',num2cell(x))
fruit_names={w.name}
fruit_numbers=[w.num]
idx=max(fruit_numbers)
maximum=fruit_names{idx}

[Marcela Ruiz de Chávez]

Thank you!!

[Marcela Ruiz de Chávez]

It still doesn't run correctly. This is what I have:

for k=1:8
  for j=1:4
      for i=1:3
          m1(i,j,k)=input('Goles equipo: ');
          m2(i,j,k)=input('Goles otro: ');
          if m1(i,j,k)>m2(i,j,k)
              x(i,j,k)=3;
          elseif m1(i,j,k)==m2(i,j,k)
              x(i,j,k)=1;
          elseif m1(i,j,k)<m2(i,j,k)
              x(i,j,k)=0;
          end
      end
      s(j,k)=x(1,j,k)+x(2,j,k)+x(3,j,k);
  end 
end 
x=[s(1,1) s(2,1) s(3,1) s(4,1)];
w=struct('name',{'apples'  'pears' 'melons' 'oranges'},'num',num2cell(x))
fruit_names={w.name}
fruit_numbers=[w.num]
idx=max(fruit_numbers)
maximum=fruit_names{idx}

[Azzi Abdelmalek]

What is your error message?

[Marcela Ruiz de Chávez]

Index exceeds matrix dimensions. Error in marcadores (line 117) maximum=fruit_names{idx}

[Azzi Abdelmalek]

Change this line

idx=max(fruit_numbers)

to

[idx,idx]=max(fruit_numbers)

[Marcela Ruiz de Chávez]

It works now! Thank you very very much!!

Answer 2

[Walter Roberson]

You cannot do that with your setup. The "w" you construct only contains values and does not track any history of what variable names were used to construct the numeric vector.

You should have a look at containers.map -- though at the moment I do not know if it can handle 0 as the index.

What I would do would be:

fruitnames = {'oranges', 'apples', 'pears', 'melons'};

w = 0 : (length(fruitnames) - 1);
maximum = fruitnames{ 1 + max(w) };

or

maximum = fruitnames{end};

Note that maximum will end up as a string for this code.

See also, http://matlab.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ#How_can_I_create_variables_A1.2C_A2.2C....2CA10_in_a_loop.3F

[Marcela Ruiz de Chávez]

Thanks!