How do I assign a value label to a string?

Im trying to assign values to 3 string variables of gender so that:

0=nonbinary

1=female

2=male

This is so that im able to add it as a predictor in a simple regression.

However, im not sure how to do this.

Answer 1

[Adam Danz]

It's not clear what you're trying to do but I think you have a list of stings and you're trying to assign them a numerical value according to their group.

gender = {'f' 'm' 'n' 'f' 'm' 'n'}; 
genderGroup = findgroups(gender);         %matlab 2015b or later

If you'd like to assign specific values,

genderGroup = nan(size(gender));
genderGroup(strcmp(gender, 'f')) = 1; 
genderGroup(strcmp(gender, 'm')) = 2; 
genderGroup(strcmp(gender, 'n')) = 0; 

However, if this group variable is used as a category in a regression function, you probably don't have to use numerical categories. You might be able to just convert your strings to categories.

categorical(gender)

[Saman Zahir]

I'll try all 3. Thank You!