You need to use cell-arrays:

names = cell(10,1);
for i=1:10
    names{i} = ['Sample Text ' num2str(i)];
end

>> fruit = {'apple', 'cherry'} fruit = 'apple' 'cherry' with curly braces creates a cell array of strings. I use R2016a. The display format for cell arrays has been changed. And to reference one of the strings >> fruit{2} ans = cherry See . Note the links at the bottom of the page.

You can either use string(arr) or num2str(arr), depending on what you desire. string(arr) will create a string array by converting each element in the array to string (for example, [ "1", "2", "3" ]) whereas num2str(arr) will convert the whole array into a string (example, [ '1 2 3' ]).

The reason why strings exist was explained in the previous comment, a small advice for writing utility functions: Use the argument block and specify the type of the argument to be string. This way the function will accept both string and char array as input, but matlab will automatically convert char arrays to string, so that you dont need to write the function for both types. Like this: arguments arg_name string end Source: https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/arguments.html#mw_5e008bc6-54ca-4d65-9e4b-13b1f7c10b2e https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/matlab_oop/implicit-class-conversion.html#mw_8f39cca8-faf5-414a-a466-f54b3a764008

Please try creating a "cell array" of strings: myList = { 'Red' ; 'Orange' ; 'Yellow' ; 'Green' ; 'Blue' } ; for k = 1:5 disp(myList{k}); end Notice that cell arrays use curly braces instead of standard parentheses. HTH. Rick

Note that strictly speaking you're not creating strings but char vectors. You may actually prefer generating strings which are easier to work with. If you want string simply replace the single quotes ' by double quotes " and you'll find that your code work exactly as you expected. However, you should preallocate the output array before the loop for efficiency: D = strings(100, 200); %preallocate array for j = 1:200 for i = 1:100 D(i, j) = sprintf("z_prop(%d,%d,hbsigmci)=%.4f;",i,j,normrnd(0,1)); end end If you want to work with char vectors, you need to store them in a cell array, not a matrix: D = cell(100, 200); for j = 1:200 for i = 1:100 D{i, j} = sprintf('z_prop(%d,%d,hbsigmci)=%.4f;',i,j,normrnd(0,1)); end end Note: another way to generate your output, which doesn't involve a loop [r, c] = ndgrid(1:100, 1:200); hbsigmci = normrnd(0, 1, size(r)); %for strings: Dstring = reshape(compose("z_prop(%d,%d,hbsigmci)=%.4f;", r(:), c(:), hbsigmci(:)), size(r)); %for char vectors Dchar = reshape(compose('z_prop(%d,%d,hbsigmci)=%.4f;', r(:), c(:), hbsigmci(:)), size(r));

Hi Jim, Remember that cell arrays can hold arbitrary data (including other cell arrays) and that while [] is concatenate, {} is "build a cell array". From the documentation about {}: "Braces are used to form cell arrays. They are similar to brackets [ ] except that nesting levels are preserved." Therefore, after your fourth assignment to legends, you actually have a cell array containing two elements, a cell array and a string. Instead, consider using: >> legends = {'first'} legends = 'first' >> legends(end+1) = {'second'} legends = 'first' 'second' >> legends(end+1) = {'third'} legends = 'first' 'second' 'third' Even better yet, if you know all the strings ahead of time, generate it all at once such as: legends = {'first' ... 'second' ... 'third'} legends = 'first' 'second' 'third' todd

If you want to store numbers and strings in the same object, use a CELL: C = cell(2, 2); C{1, 1} = 1; C{1, 2} = rand(10); C{2, 1} = 'Hello'; C{2, 2} = {'This', 'is', 'a', 'sentence', 'as', 'cellstring'};