Generate a character matrix through indexing and a for loop

I want to generate a character matrix through indexing and a for loop. This is what I have so far:

top3Table = ones(3,1); %set row dimension

for i = 1:3
  Col1= city(top3Pairs(i,1),:);
 Col2= city(top3Pairs(i,2),:);
    Row = [Col1,Col2];
    top3Table(i) = Row
  end

city is a character matrix. An example of one of it's entries is 'Manila'.

The following error occurs: In an assignment A(:) = B, the number of elements in A and B must be the same.

I understand why this error is happening but I'm not sure how to fix it. Please advise!

Answer 1

[Azzi Abdelmalek]

top3Table(i,1:2) = Row

To pre-allocate your matrix:

top3Table = ones(3,2)

[Mae]

A different error pops up: Subscripted assignment dimension mismatch.

Col1 is a character value with 8 characters :/