How to create multiple fields in a structure simultaneously using dynamic field naming

I have a cell array of n field names associated with a double array of m x n numerical data. I would like to pack these into one structure with n fields that each access an m x 1 array of numerical data.

So far I have only been able to do this in a for loop:

fieldnames = {'name1';'name2';'name3';'name4'};     % cell array of n field names
data = rand(396,4);                                 % m x n double array of data

for i = 1:length(fieldnames)
    struct.(fieldnames{i}) = data(:,i);
end

This gives me the result I want, but there must be some clever way to do this without resorting to a for loop, right? Any ideas?

Answer 1

[Adam Danz]

Good news and bad news.

Good news, here's (kind of) what you want in one line of code.

S = cell2struct(num2cell(data), fieldnames, 2);

Bad news, is that S is a structure array whereas your 'struct' is a structure. If you want to access the first field in your variable,

struct.name1

If you want to access the first field of my variable,

[S.name1]'

These are identical vectors but since mine is a structure array, the syntax differs.

[ UPDATE, thanks to Walter Roberson's suggestion] Here's what you want in 1 line of code and in the format you need.

S = cell2struct(num2cell(data,1), fieldnames, 2);

[Libby Jones]

Ah, interesting. I think for my purposes I would rather have for loops in the beginning and not have to use brackets when working with the data later on, since I have lots of data but not so many types (structures). I was wondering whether I had missed something obvious.

Thanks!

[Adam Danz]

I agree that it will be much more convenient to use the for loop and a simple structure. If the structure array in my example could be converted to a structure that would be helpful but I don't know if that's possible.

[Walter Roberson]

num2cell(data, 1) to split by column and then it should end up like you want.

[Adam Danz]

Yes! Libby, I updated my answer at the bottom and added the two critical characters that Walter suggested and now that solution works. Thanks, Walter - I had a feeling I was missing something.

[Libby Jones]

Super slick, thank you both!