Switch problem

Hello, I'm currently learning MATLAB, and the code from one question of the week 5 lab doesn't work. It returns me the error "??? SWITCH expression must be a scalar or string constant."

The code is below:

names = [{'Sam','Jim','Tom','Joe','Kai','Zoe','Jan','Pam','Bob','Ann'}];

Names = sort(names);

MarkUpdater = menu('please select a name from the menu: ',Names)

for i=1: length(Names)

switch Names

    case 1
        mark=menu('please select the mark: ', ...
                  '0','1','2','3','4','5','6','7','8','9','10')
        markAnn = mark-1;

    case 2
        mark=menu('please select the mark: ', ...
                  '0','1','2','3','4','5','6','7','8','9','10')
        markBob = mark-1;

    case 3
        mark=menu('please select the mark: ', ...
                  '0','1','2','3','4','5','6','7','8','9','10')
        markJan = mark-1;

    case 4
        mark=menu('please select the mark: ', ...
                  '0','1','2','3','4','5','6','7','8','9','10')
        markJim = mark-1;

    case 5
        mark=menu('please select the mark: ', ...
                  '0','1','2','3','4','5','6','7','8','9','10')
        markJoe = mark-1;

    case 6
        mark=menu('please select the mark: ', ...
                  '0','1','2','3','4','5','6','7','8','9','10')
        markKai = mark-1;

    case 7
        mark=menu('please select the mark: ', ...
                  '0','1','2','3','4','5','6','7','8','9','10')
        markPam = mark-1;

    case 8
        mark=menu('please select the mark: ', ...
                  '0','1','2','3','4','5','6','7','8','9','10')
        markSam = mark-1;

    case 9
        mark=menu('please select the mark: ', ...
                  '0','1','2','3','4','5','6','7','8','9','10')
        markTom = mark-1;

    case 10
        mark=menu('please select the mark: ', ...
                  '0','1','2','3','4','5','6','7','8','9','10')
        markZoe = mark-1;

end

end

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

Instead of switching on Names, you need to switch on MarkUpdater since that is your numeric value.

(There are, of course, much better ways to write that code, but presumably the lab will lead you through them.)

[Benaiah]

When i changed "switch Names" to "switch MarkUpdater", it just repeated loading the mark selection menu for the name i selected 10 times, then popped up an error saying "??? Undefined function or variable 'MarkBob' if i selected Ann as the name.

[Oleg Komarov]

Without knowing what are you trying to achieve is hard to guess.

Answer 2

[Benaiah]

What you suggested Walter worked fine. All i had to do was move the MarkUpdater code line into the for loop, then it worked.