How do I create an auto named variable?

Hello all, I am currently trying to crete a data base. How do I create automated variable names? i.e. Every time the program runs (when operator clicks add user), I want the variable name to be 'user_i' where i=usernumber+1 and usernumber is the previous value of i, to then save the variable with its name to the working directory in the form of save(filename,variables,'-append').

code:

%create user profile
usertemplate=[1:3];
usertemplate(1,1)=height;
usertemplate(1,2)=width;
usertemplate(1,3)=area;

if prog>=1
    user1=usertemplate;
    usernumber=usernumber+1;
    save('database', 'user1','usernumber',-append);
else
    userforID=usertemplate;
    run('Similarity.m');
end

I would like user1 in the above code to be the auto named variable.

Thank you for any help you provide, and for helping me further my knowledge,

Ben

[Stephen23]

See also:

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/304528-tutorial-why-variables-should-not-be-named-dynamically-eval

Answer 1

[Image Analyst]

I agree with James - bad idea. Just make it a structure array and save the whole array

% Add a new user
allUsers(usernumber) = usertemplate;

But since you have only one field - the 1-by-3 template vector - you could just make it a 2D matrix

allUsers(end+1,:) = usertemplate;
save('database.mat', 'allUsers');

Answer 2

[James Tursa]

Before you do this you should read this link:

http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/57445-faq-how-can-i-create-variables-a1-a2-a10-in-a-loop

Using variable names like this can be very cumbersome in downstream code. If you do decide to go this route, I fully expect another Question posted by you in the future along the lines of "How do I efficiently access all of the variables named user1, user2, etc in my database?"