Create multiple column vectors by entering a matrix?

I find myself copy/pasting 3xN matrices into Matlab frequently. When I do paste in the matrix, I eventually like to specify the columns as new variables so that I can use the plot3 command or similar. My current process is as follows:

data = [1 2 3; 1 2 3; 1 2 3];
x = data(:,1);
y = data(:,2);
z = data(:,3);
plot3(x,y,z);

Alternatively, after I paste in data, I plot using the following syntax:

plot3(data(:,1),data(:,2),data(:,3));

I would much prefer a solution such as:

   [x,y,z] = [1 2 3; 1 2 3; 1 2 3];

But I know that this does not work. Does anyone have a trick or tip for me to expedite my process?

Thanks!

Answer 1

[Kelly Kearney]

data = [1 2 3; 1 2 3; 1 2 3];
data = num2cell(data,1);
[x,y,z] = deal(data{:})

It would be nice if we could somehow combine lines 2 and 3 (i.e. [x,y,z] = deal(num2cell(data,1){:})), but I've never found a neat syntax to do comma separated list expansion in that way.

[tmac28]

If only...thanks for the tip, though. Works like a charm.

Answer 2

[Stephen23]

Here is an alternative solution. Rather than littering your workspace with unnecessary variables and wasting memory simply create an anonymous function wrapper for plot3:

myplot3 = @(X,varargin) plot3(X(:,1),X(:,2),X(:,3),varargin{:});

This creates no new data variables in your workspace, and gives neater code:

data = [3,2,1;2,0,2;1,2,3];
myplot3(data)

[tmac28]

I wish I only needed this for plotting purposes, but you taught me something about varargin, so I appreciate that!