How can I extract column vectors from matrix (with large number of columns) ?

Having a lot of columns, this way of extracting from a big matrix named C :

temperature = C(:,1);

index = C(:,2);

...

vu = C(:,35);

results, in this example, in 35 lines of matlab program ; is there a solution like

[temperature, index, ... , vu] = C;

Where left side is a "list" of (column) vectors ? If so, my program would be more compact and readable. Thank you.

Answer 1

[the cyclist]

In general, MATLAB would not be able to parse that syntax, because it could not predict that you want exactly one column per variable (as opposed to, say, two columns to temperature and one to index, etc.).

However, it is easy to write a function to do what you want:

function [varargout] = matrixToColumnVectors(X)

ncol = size(X,2);

for nc = 1:ncol
    varargout(nc) = {X(:,nc)};
end

end

Usage example:

>> x = rand(7,3);
>> [x1,x2,x3] = matrixToColumnVectors(x)

Answer 2

[Honglei Chen]

Here is a simple example. Not sure if it's exactly what you want, but it may get you started

x = magic(3)
y = mat2cell(x,size(x,1),ones(1,size(x,2)))
[a,b,c] = deal(y{:})