If then with strings

Dear all,

a very very simple question on strings and if-then loops.

I loaded an xls file - 384X2 double - which only contains numbers. Let's call it B. I'm simply looking for matching numbers (n) in column 2 and replacing the correspondent value (m) in the correspondent cell in column 1. Replacing numbers with numbers, it works easily:

given n = 5 and m = 7

for i 1:384
if B(i,2) == 5
B(i,1) = 7
end
end

Now the question: what if I want to substitute the values in column 1 with a string - like "bob" or "whatever"? How would the loop look like?

for i 1:384
if B(i,2) == 5
B(i,1) = ???
end
end

Any help is highly appreciated.

Best,

Udiubu

Answer 1

[the cyclist]

To mix strings and numerics in one array, you need to use "cell arrays". Here's a video introduction:

http://blogs.mathworks.com/pick/2008/06/23/matlab-basics-cell-arrays-for-holding-different-data-types/

[Ubu]

Thanks to both of you!

Answer 2

[Walter Roberson]

Numeric arrays cannot contain strings. The only kind of arrays that can contain a mix of strings and numbers are cell arrays.