Question

I currently have a function which I am batch running. It outputs its results to a cell array. I would like to export each of the outputs from the cell array to their own variable.

As such I have a variable id which records the ID of each layer. This process is possible manually as follows:

>> output = 

[300x300x2 double]    [300x300x2 double]    [300x300x2 double]

>> [a1,a2,a3]=deal(output{:});

Where the number after a represents the ID. Is it possible to automate this command, so that the prefix (in this case: a) can be set by the user and the id filled in automatically? As in, I could have variables set as below, and use these in the deal command to name my new variables?

>> id =

 1     2     3

>> prefix =

a

Any ideas?
Thanks.

Answer 1

You can construct your own custom expression as a string and then evaluate it with eval() (or evalin() if it’s in a function and you want to return the output to your workspace).

function deal_output(output, id, prefix)

id     = id(:);
vars   = strcat(prefix, cellstr(num2str(id)))';
myexpr = ['[', sprintf('%s,', vars{1:end-1}), vars{end}, '] = deal(output{:})'];

evalin('caller', myexpr)

>> output = num2cell(1:3);
>> id     = 1:3;
>> prefix = 'a';
>> deal_output(output, id, prefix)

a1 =

     4


a2 =

     5


a3 =

     6

Also check out the join.m file on FileExchange for avoiding the ugly sprintf.