NetCDF File Assign Variable Loop from Array

I have a row vector that consists of 13 heights (in meters):

z = [1.5,3,4.5,6,7.5,9,10,11,12.5,14,18,23,29];

I'm attempting to retreive data from a NetCDF (.nc) file, which has "built in" variables.

Each height has two variables, assocaited with it: u and v, each of which are a 60x14400 double. (The first dimension is the

sampling frequency (60 Hz). The second dimension is time in seconds since an initial start time.)

For example, to load 1.5m u and v and assign to variables "1_5u" and "1_5v" I would do:

1_5u = ncread(FilePath,'u_1_5m_vt');
1_5v = ncread(FilePath,'v_1_5m_vt');

For 10m u and v, I would do

10u = ncread(FilePath,'u_10m_vt');
10v = ncread(FilePath,'v_10m_vt');

And so on.

However, my main goal/question is: How could I create a loop to reference each height in z and load each variable?

Here's how I started:

for i = z
    j = mod(i,1);
    if j == .5
        fNameu = ['u_' num2str(fix(i)) '_5m_vt'];
        fNamev = ['v_' num2str(fix(i)) '_5m_vt'];
        ? = ncread('../data/isff_20070403_20.nc',fNameu);
        ? = ncread('../data/isff_20070403_20.nc',fNamev);
    else
        fNameu = ['u_' num2str(i) 'm_vt'];
        fNamev = ['v_' num2str(i) 'm_vt'];
        ? = ncread('../data/isff_20070403_20.nc',fNameu);
        ? = ncread('../data/isff_20070403_20.nc',fNamev);
    end
end

I have three questions here:

1) How can I assign two variables to each height with unique variable names for each? (Getting 26 variables in total)

2) How do I account for the fact some elements in z have a decimal, but the var name in the file is an underscore? (It is also important to keep the 'z' array as I'm referencing it in other locations)

3) How could I then take each of these variables and create 26 additional variables WITHIN THIS LOOP to take the mean of each variable over the first dimension (i.e. average over the first dimension of 60 frequencies) over a specific time period (the second dimension)

For example for 1.5m, something like:

uMean1_5 = mean(u_1_5(timeRef),1);
vMean1_5 = mean(v_1_5(timeRef),1);

How can I also include this within the loop?

[per isakson]

I doubt it is a good idea to create that many variables. See TUTORIAL: Why Variables Should Not Be Named Dynamically (eval)

The first character of a variable name must be an English letter. 10u is not legal.

[Mark Nakers]

Let’s disregard the mean- how can I go about doing it anyways?

Answer 1

[per isakson]

Partial answer. Replace

? = ncread('../data/isff_20070403_20.nc',fNameu);

by

assign( txt, ncread('../data/isff_20070403_20.nc',fNameu) )

where the value of txt is the name of the variable to be created

and where

function    assign( Name, Value )
% assign assigns the value of Value to a variable named Name    
%
%   Example:
%       assign( 'M', magic(5) )
%       for k = 1:11, assign( sprintf( 'var%d', k ), k ), end

    narginchk( 2, 2 )
    
    assert( isvarname(Name), 'assign:IllegalName'                   ...
        ,   'First input argument, "%s", must be a legal name', Name ) 
    
    assignin( 'caller', Name, Value );
end