How to make vector of strings into column headers of table

I have a vector of dates:

a =

Oct_2014

Nov_2014

Dec_2014

and I want to use the array2table function to make a table with these dates as the column headers:

array2table([10 12 14],'VariableNames',a).

It will work if a = {'Oct_2014' 'Nov_2014' 'Dec_2014'} but does not as given above. How do I go from the first instance of 'a' to the second?

Answer 1

[Azzi Abdelmalek]

a = {'Oct_2014'  ;'Nov_2014' ; 'Dec_2014'}
b=array2table([10 12 14],'VariableNames',a)

[Danny]

The output of a function I run gives a =

Oct_2014

Nov_2014

Dec_2014

I am not sure how to "insert" this vector 'a' into array2table([10 12 14],'VariableNames',a) without it returning an error. I know if 'a' were in the form {'Oct_2014' 'Nov_2014' 'Dec_2014'} it would work, but I do not know to transform the first 'a' into this second, or into any other way that would allow the array2table function to work. I do not want to manually type in the dates into an array.

[Guillaume]

What is a? a char array? a cell array of string? something else?

What does

whos a

return?

[Danny]

'a' is just the name given the vector. 'a' could be given any other name

[Guillaume]

Of course, a is the name of the variable. We need to know its type, as it's not obvious from your statements. It could be a char array, a cell array of string, or something else.

whos a

will tell us for sure.

If, in matlab, you write

a =
  Oct_2014
  Nov_2014
  Dec_2014

you'll get a syntax error. So, from your statement, we don't know what a is

[Danny]

Thank you. I was able to figure this out as 'a' was a char vector and I needed it as a string vector so I used the function cellstr.