Function not outputting structure array

Let's say I have a script which prompts the user for a certain variable to be loaded in. Let's call these variables a, b, or c. Something like:

 varname = 'What variable would you like to load? ';
 varname = input(varname,'s');

I then call a function to do some calculations:

 func1(varname)

Within func1, I do some calculations, and then want to output this to a structure array:

 array1.varname = datathatIcalculated

The overarching script looks like the following:

 varname = 'What variable would you like to load? ';
 varname = input(varname,'s');
 func1(varname)

However, instead of getting array1.varname as an output, I end up only getting a variable 'ans' which is a structure field with varname as a field, so it looks like ans.varname. Why am I not getting array1.varname as an output?

Answer 1

[Matt J]

When you invoke func1(), assign its output to something in that workspace.

varname = input('What variable would you like to load? ','s');

array1=func1(varname)

Otherwise, it goes to ans by default.

[Simpson]

Of course it would be something simple. Many thanks!

Now what if I wanted to loop through? For example, I now had 2 varnames and wanted them to all be put inside the array1?

[Stephen23]

"Now what if I wanted to loop through? For example, I now had 2 varnames and wanted them to all be put inside the array1?"

Do NOT try to access different names in a loop, just use one variable and indexing. How to use indexing is a basic MATLAB concept that is explained in the introductory tutorials:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/getting-started-with-matlab.html

[Matt J]

For example, I now had 2 varnames and wanted them to all be put inside the array1?

Instead of passing variable names to func1, I would pass a template struct with empty fields. For example, solicit all your variable names as follows,

for i=1:N

    varname = input('What variable would you like to load? ','s');
    S.(varname)=[];

end

and then fill all the empty fields of S within func1 as follows,

function S=func1(S)

   f=fieldnames(S);

   for i=1:numel(f)

     switch f{i}

       case 'var1'

        S.('var1')=ComputeSomething();

       case 'var2'

        S.('var2')=ComputeSomethingElse();

       ...

      otherwise

        error 'Unrecognized variable name'

     end

   end

end