How can I use a string to call a matrix with the same name?

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Jessica on 5 Aug 2014

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https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/146388-how-can-i-use-a-string-to-call-a-matrix-with-the-same-name

Edited: Stephen23 on 12 Sep 2023

Hi all,

I have a dynamic string, begin (depending on n) either Radiation1, Radiation2, Radiation3, etc. I also have a ton of matrices in my workspace, also called Radiation1, Radition2, etc.

What I now want is depending on what the string reads, to open a certain matrix, read a part of it, and put it into another matrix called Radiation.

So:

I have Radiationn = ['Radiation' int2str(n)] and the outcome of this is for example that Radiationn = Radiation2.

I now want a matrix called Radiation to be filled with certain data from Radiation2 (depending on lots of other stuff, but I got that figured out :-) ).

How can I get the string to relate to the name of the matrix? The piece of code I have now is:

for n = 1:20
    while (lfpt - n*500) > -499
        if (fp1 - n*500) < 0
            Radiationn = ['Radiation' int2str(n)];
            Radiation(:,:,1) = Radiationn(:,:,(fp1-(n-1)*500));
        end
    end
end

A small legend here might be in place:

lfpt is an integer depending on the loaded matfile (not a fixed number, it might vary with the matfile)

fp1 is an integer depending on other input data (also a varying number - I also have fp2, fp3 and fp4, I might solve the above problem with this as well if possible!)

Radiation1:20 are very large multi-dimensional matrices (too large to put into one!)

Radiation is a smaller multi-dimensional matrix containing only the necessary data from the large matrices for the follow-up part of the program.

If you could help me out here, I would be very, very grateful!

Jessica