Turning a lot of variables into a string

I have a list of some 500+ variable names in Excel. What I want to do is to turn them all into strings so I can use them in Matlab. Is there a way I can import the names in as a string without having to add ' ' around each entry?

[per isakson]

Did you make some experiments with xlsread? It shouldn't be a problem?

[Matt Kindig]

Are you importing them using xlsread()? If so, the '' should not be necessary.

If you are just copy-pasting the names into Matlab, why not add a formula (in Excel) concatenating the '' to the variable name, using the CONCATENATE() function in Excel?

[David Barry]

If you don't want to import automatically then you can just create an empty cell array and paste the excel data straight in.

data = cell(0); % Create empty cell array

Answer 1

[Image Analyst]

[numbers, variableNameStrings, raw] = xlsread(fullFileName);

variableNameStrings should be a cell array with all your strings in it. See the FAQ for an explanation of cell arrays: http://matlab.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ#What_is_a_cell_array.3F