insert variable k value into new variable names

Hello,

I have a folder of tif files with sequential names (on_1, on_2, off_1, off_2, etc.) I have a script to process each trial set of images. Currently I manually change the value of all the image file names in the script.

Is there a way to simply create a variable k at the beginning of the script, where is automatically changes the value in the name of all my variables (and file names) in the script.

example:

k=1

on(k)=imread('on_(k).tif');

on(k)=double(on(k);

figure; imshow(on(k));

Thanks

[Stephen23]

"...automatically changes the value in the name of all my variables..."

Changing variable names dynamically is slow, inefficient, complex, liable to bugs, and difficult to debug.

The neat, simple, efficient solution is to use indexing, just as the MATLAB documentation shows:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/import_export/process-a-sequence-of-files.html

Answer 1

[Rik]

Yes:

k=1;
on{k}=imread(sprintf('on_%d.tif',k));
on{k}=double(on{k});
figure; imshow(on{k});

The main point is to use a cell array if your elements are not the same size or data type.

[Daniel Kazal]

Very helpful thanks.

Is there a way to name the images in the cell array? I suppose if they are sequential it does not matter.

How would you call upon one of the elements within the array.

say the second image of a 1x3.

[Rik]

You should not name parts of variables. The file name is data and should be stored in a variable, not in the name of a variable.

You can create a new cell array that stores the names if you prefer to keep them around (e.g. if you had used dir to find all images in a folder).

You can access the variables the same way they are created here: on{2} will get the second element of the cell array on.