Can I join variables containing strings into one variable?

Hi,

Say hypothetically, I have a series of a variables containing strings which I got after running a loop. A1 = 'Apple' A2 = 'Orange' A3 = 'Banana' . . . An = 'Fruit'

Is it possible to get a string that would contain the following:

A_Total = 'Apple + Orange + Banana + ... + Fruit' ie. I would also want to see the plus (+) signs

[Stephen23]

Make you own life easier and store these strings together in one cell array. This avoids the need for poor programming practices like dynamically named variables. Numbered variables are a sign of bad data planning, and these should be rather kept together in one cell array. Read these to know why:

http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/196952-how-to-create-new-variables-in-batches-with-strcat

http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/225435-save-variable-as-string-from-user-input

Note that every answer will likely put these in a cell array as the first step... and for a good reason: it is easier to work with!

Answer 1

[Adam]

strjoin( { A1, A2, A3,..., An }, ' + ' )

would work in the case you give, but you have to hard-code in each of the An.

But that then leads to the question of how/why you end up with such individually named variables as the output from a loop. Ideally they should be in the cell array format into which I pack them to call strjoin anyway if they came from a loop.

Answer 2

[Stephen23]

Try this:

>> X = {'Apple','Orange','Banana','Fruit'};
>> Y(2,:) = X;
>> Y(1,:) = {' + '};
>> [Y{2:end}]
ans =
Apple + Orange + Banana + Fruit