uitable ColumnName from string array which keeps changing

I have a string array (a global variable) that's changing throughout the script. One iteration would be:

critMaterial = [ "Steel" "Stainless" "Titanium" "Aluminum" "Bronze" "Brass" "Copper" "Lead" ];

I also have a function that is plotting a bunch of uitables together with some subplots based on various criteria. uitable column names should match critMaterials strings, analogue to:

uitable(fig,'Data',data,...
 'ColumnName',{"Steel" "Stainless" "Titanium" "Aluminum" "Bronze" "Brass" "Copper" "Lead" },...
 'RowName',{'X [unit]';'Y [unit]'});

Now this being a function I need to automate how ColumnName is populated. Quick and crass way I came up with is:

uitable(fig,'Data',data,...
 'ColumnName',{ critMaterial(1), critMaterial(2), etc., critMaterial(7)},...
 'RowName',{'X [unit]';'Y [unit]'});

Apart from being cumbersome I also need to monitor what is the maximum number of cells in critMaterial and match that number.

Is there a more elegant way of doing this? How can I loop through critMateral from 1 to numel(critMaterial) and assign the column names in each iteration automatically?

While searching for the solution, I found this answer. However, that topic discusses pre-set VariableNames which I do not have.

Thanks.

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

uitable(fig,'Data',data,...
 'ColumnName', critMaterial(1:7),...
 'RowName',{'X [unit]';'Y [unit]'});

You are permitted to pass a string array for that parameter, even though that is not documented as a possibility.

If you still have problems, then

uitable(fig,'Data',data,...
 'ColumnName', cellstr(critMaterial(1:7)),...
 'RowName',{'X [unit]';'Y [unit]'});

[Milos Krsmanovic]

Thank you for your answer @Walter Roberson.

I actually tried the first recommendation before and received the error:

Cell array can contain only non-empty character vectors, string vectors, or numbers.

I received the same error for the second recommendation (cellstr) but after some research on the error this is what ultimately worked for me:

'ColumnName',[critMaterial(1:e)],...

where e=numel(critMaterial).

Not sure what the issue was exactly but it works now. Thanks again!

[Walter Roberson]

uitable(fig,'Data',data,...
 'ColumnName',{"Steel" "Stainless" "Titanium" "Aluminum" "Bronze" "Brass" "Copper" "Lead" },...
 'RowName',{'X [unit]';'Y [unit]'});

That version sets eight column names.

critMaterial = [ "Steel" "Stainless" "Titanium" "Aluminum" "Bronze" "Brass" "Copper" "Lead" ];

That has eight entries, and numel() of that would be 8, so critMaterial(1:e) would be CritMaterial(1:8) would would have eight entries.

uitable(fig,'Data',data,...
 'ColumnName',{ critMaterial(1), critMaterial(2), etc., critMaterial(7)},...
 'RowName',{'X [unit]';'Y [unit]'});

but there you were asking for seven column names, and my suggestions such as

uitable(fig,'Data',data,...
 'ColumnName', critMaterial(1:7),...
 'RowName',{'X [unit]';'Y [unit]'});

corresponded to that seven . If you had eight columns but tried to set only seven column names, then you would expect there to be a problem.