Repmat converts '' to []

I want to create an array of structs

I am using the following code

   structElement = struct('a', '', 'b', '', 'c', []);
   ans = repmat(structElement, [4,1]);

The problem is that repmat converts '' to []

I want it to be ''

Is there a better way to do this?

[Aditya Jain]

This happens only when I see it in Workspace Browser/ Viewer by double clicking a. Doesn't happen if I do ans(1,1).a

So probably a bug in Workspace browser?

Answer 1

[Nitin Khola]

Thanks for bringing this to the fore. At this instance, this appears to be an issue with the variable editor and not "repmat". You have mentioned that in the comment and it can also be illustrated by:

>> structElement = struct('a', '', 'b', '', 'c', []);
>> RepSt = repmat(structElement, [4,1]);

>> ischar(RepSt(1,1).a)

    ans =

         1

>> ischar(RepSt(1,1).c)

    ans =

         0

I was able to reproduce this issue. I will add it to our records. On a side note, I would like to request you to not use "ans" as a variable. Using the reserved keywords as variable and function names should be avoided.

[Aditya Jain]

was just using that to reproduce the issue. Thanks for the tip :)