changing char to string(?)

I am currently trying to make a simple code named subjex.dat

The goal is to create a 5x2 matrix with these values that will pop up

5.3 a

2.2 b

3.3 a

4.4 a

1.1 b

What i have so far is

a = 'a';
b = 'b';
matrix1 = [5.3, 2.2, 3.3, 4.4, 1.1]'
matrix2 = [a,b,a,a,b]'
matrix3 = [matrix1,matrix2]

How do I get the numbers to show? Right now, all this I see is "5x2 char array" and then the letters

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

a = 'a';
b = 'b';
matrix1 = [5.3, 2.2, 3.3, 4.4, 1.1]'

matrix1 = 5×1

5.3000 2.2000 3.3000 4.4000 1.1000

matrix2 = [a,b,a,a,b]'

matrix2 = 5×1 char array
    'a'
    'b'
    'a'
    'a'
    'b'

matrix3 = table(matrix1,matrix2)

matrix3 = 5×2 table
    matrix1    matrix2
    _______    _______

      5.3         a   
      2.2         b   
      3.3         a   
      4.4         a   
      1.1         b   

writetable(matrix3, 'subject.dat', 'filetype', 'text', 'writevariablename', false, 'delimiter', 'tab')

type subject.dat

5.3	a
2.2	b
3.3	a
4.4	a
1.1	b

[MADISON RAGONE]

Hi Mr. Roberson,

Thank you for answering my question. I just tested out the code you sent to see if it worked on my end, and it did not. I first thought I may have miss-written it, so I copied and pasted your code onto my code, and the current error that pops up is "Unsupported type 'cell'. Use writecell instead."

I tried writecell, but that also did not work. I am confused on how it worked on your end but not on mine. Here is what is looks like.

writetable(matrix3, 'subjex.dat', 'filetype', ...
    'text', 'writevariablename', false, ...
    'delimiter', 'tab')
type subjex.dat

The file name is subjex.m so I changed the 'subject.dat' to 'subjex.dat' hoping that would eliminate the issue.

[Walter Roberson]

Perhaps your actual code is doing something different than the test code. The output in matrix3 is, like the output says, a 5 x 2 table object, not a cell.

The code I showed works even if matrix2 is a cell array of character vectors.

a = 'apple';
b = 'ball';
matrix1 = [5.3, 2.2, 3.3, 4.4, 1.1]'

matrix1 = 5×1

5.3000 2.2000 3.3000 4.4000 1.1000

matrix2 = {a,b,a,a,b}'

matrix2 = 5×1 cell array
    {'apple'}
    {'ball' }
    {'apple'}
    {'apple'}
    {'ball' }

matrix3 = table(matrix1,matrix2)

matrix3 = 5×2 table
    matrix1     matrix2 
    _______    _________

      5.3      {'apple'}
      2.2      {'ball' }
      3.3      {'apple'}
      4.4      {'apple'}
      1.1      {'ball' }

writetable(matrix3, 'subject.dat', 'filetype', 'text', 'writevariablename', false, 'delimiter', 'tab')

type subject.dat

5.3	apple
2.2	ball
3.3	apple
4.4	apple
1.1	ball

[MADISON RAGONE]

Oh, it looks like I forgot the table function. Sorry about that. Thank you for taking the time to explain this.