String to Variable conversion?

So first I declare some variables:

   data.variable=12
   v1='variable'
   n=1

The results:

strcat('data.', v1)
    data.variable

But

strcat('data.', (strcat('v',num2str(n))))
  data.v1

Instead of data.variable. I'm assuming that this is because v1 is a string. What should I do to make the second command return data.variable?

Answer 1

[per isakson]

You might find dynamic field names useful. Doc says:

    Generate Field Names from Variables

    [...] 
    For example, create a field name from the current date:
    currentDate = datestr(now,'mmmdd');
    myStruct.(currentDate) = [1,2,3]

[Walter Roberson]

http://matlab.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ#How_can_I_create_variables_A1.2C_A2.2C....2CA10_in_a_loop.3F

Answer 2

[Evgeny Pr]

So that's that?

strcat('data.', evalin('base', strcat('v',num2str(n))))

Answer 3

[Azzi Abdelmalek]

Why are n't you using one array to save your variables, instead of using, v1,v2,...

For example

data.variable1=10;
variable={'variable1','variable2','variable3'}
out=data.(variable{1})

[Gregory]

That's probably a better way to do it; I'm learning matlab as I code, I'll try this as well. Thanks.

[Jan]

And you can decrease the level of indirection further by using data.variable{1} directly instead of hiding the index in the fieldname.