How can I get a variable name to include a string of text?

I need a series of variable names to have the same text included in the name. Is there a way to do this? For example, I want something like:

text='AB1'

aAB1=1;

bAB1=2;

cAB1=3;

But rather than writing AB1 I want to call text and have that insert AB1 into the variable name. Basically a(text) is aAB1 and b(text) is bAB1.

I know this is bad practice and it makes matlab run slowly. However this would help me in my workplace a lot since i have about 1800 sets of data that need to be named in a certain pattern.

Thank you for your help, Jodok.

PS: I am working with release 2020b.

[Stephen23]

"However this would help me..."

Unlikely.

"... since i have about 1800 sets of data that need to be named in a certain pattern."

Why do they need to be named in a particular pattern? What will you do with them?

Instead of describing the actual problem, you are describing your attempted solution:

https://xyproblem.info/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XY_problem

https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/66377/what-is-the-xy-problem

Tell us what you are actually trying to achieve, what tools/functions/data you are using. Do not assume a solution.

Answer 1

[Mustafa Abu-Mallouh]

Instead of defining the variable name with text (as you mentioned, bad practice), would you be able to use a structure instead?

MATLAB lets you generate field names from variable data, see this link for more details:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/matlab_prog/generate-field-names-from-variables.html

Answer 2

[Jan]

Read Stephen23's hints carefully, because they are valuable.

Storing important information in the names of variables is a programming anti-pattern. It produces more problems than it solves. Remember, that Matlab replaces variables by simple pointers to the data during the execution of the code, so keeping important details inthe names is a confusing indirection.

Store the information as data instead:

text  = 'AB1';
names = sprintfc(['%c', text], 'abc')

names = 1×3 cell array
    {'aAB1'}    {'bAB1'}    {'cAB1'}

data  = [1,2,3]

data = 1×3

1 2 3

Now you can work with the names array to identify the index of a specific value of data.

But currently it looks, like the redundant text can be omitted - because it is redundant...