Number of variables dependent on user input

Hi Everyone, I would like to have user input for number of Securities and weights for each security in a portfolio. For Example:

numsec = ('Enter the number of securities in Portfolio: ');
numsec = input(numsec)

If the user input is "2" then

Security1 = ('Enter Security 1 Ticker: ');
Security1 = input(Security1,'s');
Security1Wt = ('Enter Security 1 Weight (ex: .25): ');
Security1Wt = input(Security1Wt);
Security2 = ('Enter Security 2 Ticker: ');
Security2 = input(Security2,'s');
Security2Wt = ('Enter Security 2 Weight (ex: .25): ');
Security2Wt = input(Security2Wt);

I want this to be dynamic so that there are Securities and Security weight variables for the number of securities in the portfolio. Sorry if I am not asking this clearly as I am a matlab rookie. Also, if any of the code I posted is ugly and can be done in a betterfashion, please let me know! Kind regards.

Answer 1

[the cyclist]

Use cell arrays:

numsec = ('Enter the number of securities in Portfolio: ');
numsec = input(numsec)

Security = cell(numsec,1);
SecurityWt = nan(numsec,1);

for ns = 1:numsec
    securityNumberString = num2str(ns);
    Security{ns} = input(['Enter Security ',securityNumberString,' Ticker: '],'s');
    SecurityWt(ns) = input(['Enter Security ',securityNumberString,' Weight (ex: .25): ']);
end

Notice that Security is a cell array, convenient for storing text. SecurityWt is a numeric array. Pay attention to where I used curly brackets instead of parentheses.

[P_Alpha]

Worked like a charm. Thanks so much!

[the cyclist]

The best form of thanks is accepting the solution, which rewards the person who answered, and also might serve as a guide for a person who has a similar question later.

[P_Alpha]

Whoops sorry I thought I accepted earlier. Question related to this topic, if i wanted to display a pie chart of all of my securities and weights based on the above code, how can this be done. I appear to be stuck. I tried transposing securities and then simply doing:

pie(Security,SecurityWt)

[the cyclist]

You have the label as the first argument, and the numeric value second. It should be the other way around:

pie(SecurityWt,Security)

[P_Alpha]

Wow I feel dumb, thanks so much.