Using For loop to convert a message. Help pls.

I'm trying to convert a string from alphabetical characters to numbers

for example: The message I want to convert is "abc" and so the code should read "123" if i set a=1 b=2 c=3

I must do this while using for loops but don't know how to do it. This is how I thought it would work:

message=('abc');

for i=1:1:length(message)
    if message(i)=a
        code(1)=1
    elseif message(i)=b
        code(2)=2
    elseif message(i)=c
        code(3)=3      
    end
end
disp(code)

In case you haven't figured it out yet I'm new to Mat lab and am very confused by loops.

Answer 1

[sixwwwwww]

Dear Micheal, here is the code:

message='abc';
for i=1:1:length(message)
    if message(i)=='a'
        code(1)='1';
    elseif message(i)=='b'
        code(2)='2';
    elseif message(i)=='c'
        code(3)='3';     
    end
end
disp(code)

[Michael]

I can't thank you enough!

[sixwwwwww]

why something wrong?

Answer 2

[Image Analyst]

Here's one way that's somewhat flexible, in that you can change the input letters and output numerical digits to almost whatever you want (as long as the numbers are only 1 digit and not 2 - in other words, 'a' maps to 0-9 and doesn't map to 375 or something.)

s='abc'
% Define the mapping of alphabet to numbers.
dictionary = [1,2,3] + '0';
% Create an output matrix where each element
% comes from the translation dictionary.
for index = 1 : length(s)
  outIndex = s(index) - 'a' + 1;
  s_out(index) = char(dictionary(outIndex));
end
% Print the output string to the command window.
s_out