help with creating certain function for setting elements in one matrix to another

want to make function that takes in text, and then creates a matrix that sets each element to one of the ascii code elements

for example: [abcdef] would get set to [1 2 3 4 5 6]

and [help] would get set to [8 5 12 16]

pls help

Answer 1

[the cyclist]

Here's one way:

alphabet = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz';
[~,vec] = ismember('help',alphabet)

[Andrei Bobrov]

discretize('help'-'a',('a':'z') - 'a')

[Jessie Ray]

what if I want help to represent a vector... so like help could represent a certain a bunch of different letters help = jsdbsfb

how would I get it to convert 'jsdbsfb' and not 'help'

[Jessie Ray]

that didn't work for me. any other ideas?

[the cyclist]

[~,vec] = ismember('jsdbsfb',alphabet)

or

charvec = 'jsdbsfb';
[~,vec] = ismember(charvec,alphabet)

[Stephen23]

Just define it as a variable, and pass that variable.

str = 'jsdbsfb';
[~,vec] = ismember(str,alphabet)

Note that a simpler way to generate the alphabet is to use the colon, which also reduces the chance of missing a letter:

str = 'jsdbsfb';
[~,vec] = ismember(str,'a':'z')

[Jessie Ray]

okay yes this would work, but in my project 'jsdbsfb' is actually a random matrix of 300+ letters, so I can't type them into Matlab. I stored them all as one vector called 'text1'

[the cyclist]

So, maybe next time give a complete description of your problem first?

[Stephen23]

"I stored them all as one vector called 'text1'"

Stored where? In some file, in a matrix in MATLAB, or printed on a piece of paper? How did you define this matrix?

[Jessie Ray]

lol sry