How to extract variable data from a table

I have some code for data analysis that I am trying to make more general by including a for loop and then extracting data from a table based on input from a text file, but am struggling to extract the data for some reason.

The ungeneralised form of the specific line in question is:

Zr   = str2num(char(strtok(clusters.Zr_Ranged,'%')));  % Gets numerical data from column in table

and the generalised form is:

element1   = char(elements{2,1});           % Pulls label from txt file
element1   = strcat('clusters.',element1,'_Ranged'); % Sets string for next line
element1   = str2num(char(strtok(element1,'%'))); % To get numerical data from table

but with this code, an empty array is returned (both are double precision arrays).

[Walter Roberson]

When you say table, do you mean the MATLAB table() data object type? What you coded reminds me more of a struct than a table

Answer 1

[Peter Perkins]

Hard to tell what you are doing because you have not said what elements or clusters is.

It looks like you created your own way to "eval" a subscripting expression. Maybe you ought to be using some form of "dynamic field name" indexing. You said "table", so ...

>> t = table([1;2;3],[4;5;6])
t =
  3×2 table
    Var1    Var2
    ____    ____
     1       4  
     2       5  
     3       6  
>> varName = 'Var1';
>> t.(varName)
ans =
     1
     2
     3

... but the same thing works for structs too.