Sort variables form lowest to largest but by keeping their name

Hi,

I'm looking for a way to sort some variables from the smallest value to the largest, but I would like to have the variable's names instead of their value as the output. For example:

a = 5; b = 10; c = 6;

Ans = sort( [ a b c ] )

In this case the Command Window will show me " Ans = 5 6 10" but I would like it to show " Ans = a c b"

How can I do that without using a "if" to sort them by name afterwards, which could become very long in the case of many variables?

Thanks for your answer!

Answer 1

[dpb]

Per usual, the way in MATLABB is to not used explicitly named variables -- use an array and if you need some auxiliary name/id to go with them, carry that along as a corollary variable.

data=[5 10 6];
names=cellstr(['a':'c'].');
[~,ix]=sort(data);

>> names(ix)
ans =
  3×1 cell array
    {'a'}
    {'c'}
    {'b'}
>> 

Answer 2

[Stephen23]

Using separate variables is an approach that will force you into writing slow, inefficient, complex code. A much better use of MATLAB would be to use arrays to store your data, which is exactly what MATLAB was designed for.

A table makes your task very simple:

>> names = {'a';'b';'c';};
>> values = [ 5; 10;  6];
>> T = table(names,values)
T = 
    names    values
    _____    ______
    'a'       5    
    'b'      10    
    'c'       6    
>> T = sortrows(T,'values')
T = 
    names    values
    _____    ______
    'a'       5    
    'c'       6    
    'b'      10 

[dpb]

Good idea to put into the table, Stephen... +1