create arrays in a loop

is it possible to create arrays in a loop. For instance iterate over a i=1:10

and for each value of i create a new array (with a specific name with a connection to the value of i)

later on the array can be filled in.

[Andrew Reibold]

This is very possible. Have an example?

Answer 1

[Azzi Abdelmalek]

This is not a good idea, why create multiple variables while you can use just one cell array. Look at http://matlab.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ#How_can_I_create_variables_A1.2C_A2.2C....2CA10_in_a_loop.3F

Answer 2

[Iain]

This is how to do it:

 for i = 1:10
  eval(['variable_' num2str(i) ' = zeros(5);']);
 end

Azzi is correct, it is usually a bad idea to programmatically create variable names as it means that you will then struggle to use all of those variables, like for example, when you want to calculate the sum of them all.

If you can avoid having one cell array to store all your data, and use a well formatted 2-D, 3-D or n-D array instead, you probably should.