how to create a matrix named after a string and be able to use it afterwards

Hello, first thanks to any help you can give me.

I would like to build a m*n matrix of zeros with its var named by a string and be able to call it after to populate the zeros with numbers.

I have managed to do it using eval, like in this example:

>> eval(['my_var_name' '=zeros(4,4)'])

my_var_name =

     0     0     0     0
     0     0     0     0
     0     0     0     0
     0     0     0     0

>> eval(['my_var_name(2,:)' '=[1,2,3,4]'])

my_var_name =

     0     0     0     0
     1     2     3     4
     0     0     0     0
     0     0     0     0

but is there a better or simpler way to do it? I will have to do this several times in a loop to a certain number of matrices that i will name by strings, the calculations i have to do in order to populated these matrices are computational expensive will eval function make any significant overburden?

thanks for any suggestions.

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

Please see this FAQ

[Jan]

+1. And to repeat it here directly: It is recommended to avoid this technique. Use dynamic fieldnames instead:

data.('my_var_name') = zeros(4); data.('my_var_name')(2, :) = 1:4;

This will reduce the time needed for programming, debugging and running your program substantially.