How to create a matrix B=[bij]=[max(i,j)] belongs to class of rectangular matrices

Please answer me

Answer 1

[Birdman]

One way is symbolical:

i=3;j=4;
B=sym('B',[i j])

[Farooq Aamir]

Thanks birdman but how i get without symbolic

[Birdman]

i=3;j=4;B=string(zeros(i,j));
for a=1:i
   for b=1:j
      B(a,b)=sprintf('b%i%i',a,b);
   end
end

Answer 2

[Christine Tobler]

Focusing on the max(i, j) part, you could use

 i = 3;
 j = 4;
 B = max((1:i)', (1:j));