nested for loop query - matlab

Question

I am trying to do something rather simple, but can't seem to get it...
I have 3 cell-arrays with strings,
A = {'ConditionA'; 'ConditionB'; 'ConditionC'; 'ConditionD'};
B = {'Case1'; 'Case2'; 'Case3'; 'Case4'};
C = {'Rice'; 'Beans'; 'Carrots'; 'Cereal';'Tomato'; 'Cabbage';...
'Sugar'}
I want to produce a vector with the concatenated (strcat?) combinations, as it this were a "tree diagram", like:
strcat(A(1),B(1),C(1))
strcat(A(1),B(1),C(2))
strcat(A(1),B(1),C(3))
strcat(A(1),B(1),C(4))
strcat(A(1),B(1),C(5))
strcat(A(1),B(1),C(6))
strcat(A(1),B(1),C(7))
strcat(A(1),B(2),C(1))
So what the first elements I am trying to get are (in a column ideally):
ConditionACase1Rice
ConditionACase1Beans
ConditionACase1Carrots
ConditionACase1Cereal
ConditionACase1Tomato
ConditionACase1Cabbage
ConditionACase1Sugar
ConditionACase2Rice
etc etc etc...
I know that:
for i=1:length(A)
E(i) = strcat(A(i),B(1),C(1))
end
Works for one "level". I have tried:
for i=1:length(A)
for j=1:length(B)
for k=1:length(C)
P(i) = strcat(A(i),B(j),C(k));
end
end
end
But this doesn't work...
I would be really grateful if I could be helped with this.
Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

From what I understood, you want all possible combinations of the strings of the input arrays as specified. If so, simply replace your nested loops with the following:
P = cell(length(A)*length(B)*length(C),1);
t=1;
for i=1:length(A)
for j=1:length(B)
for k=1:length(C)
P(t) = strcat(A(i),B(j),C(k));
t = t+1;
end
end
end
For the input arrays,
>> A = {'ConditionA'; 'ConditionB'; 'ConditionC'; 'ConditionD'};
>> B = {'Case1'; 'Case2'; 'Case3'; 'Case4'};
>> C = {'Rice'; 'Beans'; 'Carrots'; 'Cereal';'Tomato'; 'Cabbage';'Sugar'};
The value of P would be:
>> P
P =
'ConditionACase1Rice'
'ConditionACase1Beans'
'ConditionACase1Carrots'
'ConditionACase1Cereal'
'ConditionACase1Tomato'
'ConditionACase1Cabbage'
'ConditionACase1Sugar'
'ConditionACase2Rice'
'ConditionACase2Beans'
'ConditionACase2Carrots'
'ConditionACase2Cereal'
'ConditionACase2Tomato'
'ConditionACase2Cabbage'
'ConditionACase2Sugar'
'ConditionACase3Rice'
'ConditionACase3Beans'
'ConditionACase3Carrots'
'ConditionACase3Cereal'
'ConditionACase3Tomato'
'ConditionACase3Cabbage'
'ConditionACase3Sugar'
'ConditionACase4Rice'
'ConditionACase4Beans'
'ConditionACase4Carrots'
'ConditionACase4Cereal'
'ConditionACase4Tomato'
'ConditionACase4Cabbage'
'ConditionACase4Sugar'
'ConditionBCase1Rice'
'ConditionBCase1Beans'
'ConditionBCase1Carrots'
'ConditionBCase1Cereal'
'ConditionBCase1Tomato'
'ConditionBCase1Cabbage'
'ConditionBCase1Sugar'
'ConditionBCase2Rice'
'ConditionBCase2Beans'
'ConditionBCase2Carrots'
'ConditionBCase2Cereal'
'ConditionBCase2Tomato'
'ConditionBCase2Cabbage'
'ConditionBCase2Sugar'
'ConditionBCase3Rice'
'ConditionBCase3Beans'
'ConditionBCase3Carrots'
'ConditionBCase3Cereal'
'ConditionBCase3Tomato'
'ConditionBCase3Cabbage'
'ConditionBCase3Sugar'
'ConditionBCase4Rice'
'ConditionBCase4Beans'
'ConditionBCase4Carrots'
'ConditionBCase4Cereal'
'ConditionBCase4Tomato'
'ConditionBCase4Cabbage'
'ConditionBCase4Sugar'
'ConditionCCase1Rice'
'ConditionCCase1Beans'
'ConditionCCase1Carrots'
'ConditionCCase1Cereal'
'ConditionCCase1Tomato'
'ConditionCCase1Cabbage'
'ConditionCCase1Sugar'
'ConditionCCase2Rice'
'ConditionCCase2Beans'
'ConditionCCase2Carrots'
'ConditionCCase2Cereal'
'ConditionCCase2Tomato'
'ConditionCCase2Cabbage'
'ConditionCCase2Sugar'
'ConditionCCase3Rice'
'ConditionCCase3Beans'
'ConditionCCase3Carrots'
'ConditionCCase3Cereal'
'ConditionCCase3Tomato'
'ConditionCCase3Cabbage'
'ConditionCCase3Sugar'
'ConditionCCase4Rice'
'ConditionCCase4Beans'
'ConditionCCase4Carrots'
'ConditionCCase4Cereal'
'ConditionCCase4Tomato'
'ConditionCCase4Cabbage'
'ConditionCCase4Sugar'
'ConditionDCase1Rice'
'ConditionDCase1Beans'
'ConditionDCase1Carrots'
'ConditionDCase1Cereal'
'ConditionDCase1Tomato'
'ConditionDCase1Cabbage'
'ConditionDCase1Sugar'
'ConditionDCase2Rice'
'ConditionDCase2Beans'
'ConditionDCase2Carrots'
'ConditionDCase2Cereal'
'ConditionDCase2Tomato'
'ConditionDCase2Cabbage'
'ConditionDCase2Sugar'
'ConditionDCase3Rice'
'ConditionDCase3Beans'
'ConditionDCase3Carrots'
'ConditionDCase3Cereal'
'ConditionDCase3Tomato'
'ConditionDCase3Cabbage'
'ConditionDCase3Sugar'
'ConditionDCase4Rice'
'ConditionDCase4Beans'
'ConditionDCase4Carrots'
'ConditionDCase4Cereal'
'ConditionDCase4Tomato'
'ConditionDCase4Cabbage'
'ConditionDCase4Sugar'
Let me know if you need further assistance.

Answer 2

I am not really familiar with matlab.. but maybe try something like this?
for A = {'ConditionA'; 'ConditionB'; 'ConditionC'; 'ConditionD'};
for B = {'Case1'; 'Case2'; 'Case3'; 'Case4'};
for C = {'Rice'; 'Beans'; 'Carrots'; 'Cereal';'Tomato'; 'Cabbage'; 'Sugar'}
P(i) = strcat(A(i),B(j),C(k));
end
end
end

Answer 3

{
x = 1;
for i=1:length(A)
for j=1:length(B)
for k=1:length(C)
P(x) = strcat(A(i),B(j),C(k));
x = x + 1;
end
end
end
}
Please basically check your code before posting to PO as this is a very simple debugging