How can I save different variables in separated files using cellfun/arrayfun?

I would like to save different variables (included in the same cell) using cellfun.

As an example, this is the cell containing the file names for the 3 files that will be created:

 fnames={'var1.mat';'var2.mat';'var3.mat'};

And this is the cell with the variables that will be saved in the corresponding files:

vars={ones(1);2*ones(3);3*ones(3)};

As far as I understand, arrayfun could save vars{1} with the name 'var1.mat', vars{2} with the 'var2.mat', and vars{3} with 'var3.mat'. But I get the following error:

cellfun(@(x,y) save(x,y), fnames,vars)
Error using save
Argument must contain a character vector.

Error in @(x,y)save(x,y)

If I try the following code I get another error:

cellfun(@(x,y) save(x,y), fnames,'vars')
Error using cellfun
Input #3 expected to be a cell array, was char instead.

I don't really know if the syntax is not correct or what I'm trying to do is not possible.

Any ideas about it?

Many thanks!!

[Stephen23]

Unfortunately this is a major "design feature" (aka mistake) in the function save. Not easy to work around, really.

Answer 1

[Jan]

The save command expects the data as the name of the variable. It does not accept the array to be saved directly. If you really need this, write a wrapper:

cellfun(@(x,y) savewrapper(x,y), fnames, vars)

function savewrapper(FileName, Data)
save(FileName, 'Data');

[Unai Lorenzo]

I just wanted to check if I could save the files faster than using a loop, but it also seems slow. Thanks anyway!