How to fill a zeros matrix with text?

I have created a matrix filled with zeros and I want to fill this matrix by using a for loop. However, instead of filling it with numbers, I want to fill it with text. When I try to run the code, I get the error: 'unable to perform assignment because of the left side is 1-by-1 and the size of the right side is 1-by-12. Also, not all the text returns are the same size. The first is 1x12, the second 1x13 and the third 1x12. However, I think I can solve this by using extra blanks.

matrix = zeros(12)

for i:12;
    for j:12;
        if i>j;
            matrix(i,j) = 'first option'
        elseif i<j
            matrix(i,j) = 'second option'
        else 
            matrix(i,j) = 'third option'
        end
    end
end

Answer 1

[Star Strider]

I am not certain what you are doing. The string (link) variable type (introduced in R2016b), may do what you want.

Answer 2

[Kevin Phung]

Your syntax for your for loop is incorrect, I think you mean to say:

for i = 1:12 
    for j = 1:12
        %etc etc
    end
end

and also, you cant have strings and numerics in an array -- you're going to need to switch to a cell array/matrix.

anyway, maybe this does what you want without a for loop:

n = 12; % 
a = ones(n); %creates nxn matrix 
ind = logical(tril(a,-1)); % this is the i<j condition
ind2 = logical(triu(a,1));% i>j condition
ind3 = logical(eye(size(a,1))); % i ==j condition
test_M = cell(n); %this will be your matrix
test_M(ind) = {'first option'};
test_M(ind2) = {'second option'};
test_M(ind3) = {'third option'};