boxplot vs column of strings

So, i need to analyse some data regarding 4 precipitation stations. Problem is, each station gives me a different number of values than the other stations, so I can't use boxplot with multiple variables. I'm trying to solve this by creating one unic column with the results from the four stations (that part is easy and it's done), but I can't find out a way of creating a column of strings with the stations names.

example: station 1 gives me 1 value, station 2 gives me 2 values, station 3 gives me 3, station 4 gives me 4. I want a column like:

station 1

station 2

station 2

station 3

station 3

station 3

station 4

station 4

station 4

station 4

help? thanks!

Answer 1

[Tom Lane]

The simplest way to do this would depend on how you have your data stored now. For example, do you already have it as a column of station numbers? Then this is relatively simple:

>> names = {'first'; 'second'; 'third'};
>> numbers = [1 3 2 3 1]';
>> g = names(numbers)
g = 
    'first'
    'third'
    'second'
    'third'
    'first'

[in-p]

I have the station names as inputs from a prompt function. (station1=char(answer(1)) and so on), and I already know how many values wich station has (n1=54, etc), just don't know how to get it all together... Any idea?