Casting a number into a categorical array

Hello,

I'm trying to swith my project to categorical arrays (from a cellstr plus a numeric index). There's one feature that should be insanely simple, but I can't find a simple way to do it. I'd like to be able to cast a number or char into an existing type of categorical array. In other words, given a categorical array x, I'd like to take a number vector or cellstr y, and produce a categorical array with the categories of x (in the same order), but the entries in y:

x = categorical({'one','two','three'})
y1 = [2,2,3]
y2 = {'two','two','three'}
categorical(y1, double(x), categories(x)) % works, but is super lengthy, data-type specific, and probably inefficient
categorical(y2, cellstr(char(x)), categories(x)) % doesn't even work (returns a categorical array valued [three,three,two])

The motivation is to acquire two arrays that index into the same list of categories. Any advice appreciated!

[E]

(FYI I'd use an enum, but the list of categories is determined dynamically)

Answer 1

[Stephen23]

x = categorical({'one','two','three'})

x = 1×3 categorical array
     one      two      three 

c = categories(x)

c = 3×1 cell array
    {'one'  }
    {'three'}
    {'two'  }

y = setcats(categorical({'two','two','three'}),c)

y = 1×3 categorical array
     two      two      three 

d = categories(y)

d = 3×1 cell array
    {'one'  }
    {'three'}
    {'two'  }

[E]

thank you so much!