How do I create variable names based on string values in an excel workbook and assign values to each variable with data in the workbook

I have an excel workbook that has names in column 1 numbers in column 2 and a variation of numbers in columns 3 through 15. I am trying to create variables with names equal to the string values in column 1 concatenated with the numbers in column 2 and assign the number values in columns 3 through 15 in each row to the respective variable created from that row. Also, I have some columns(3:15) in certain rows that do not contain any values. I have attached a sample excel document and the code that I have so far is

[num, txt, raw] = xlsread('sampleData.xls','Year2016');
fclose('all');
[rows columns] = size(raw);
names = raw(2:rows,2); % my data contains headers that I do not care about
nameNumber = num2str(num(2:rows,1)); % I have duplicate names and need to distinguish them
nameAndNumber = genvarname(strcat(names, '_Number_', nameNumber, '_2016'));

that all works but then I do not know how to assign the data to each variable. Everything I have tried has not worked. The end product would be variables that look something like this

Peter_Number_1_2016 = 
   164    144    153    167    164    158
Jason_Number_1_2016 =
   157    160    183    175    164
Jason_Number_2_2016 = 
   153    165    193    155    201    78    72

and so on

[Stephen23]

@Terrence Jenkins: learn why it is a really bad idea to create variable names dynamically:

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/304528-tutorial-why-variables-should-not-be-named-dynamically-eval

As Adam's answer states, a much better solution is to use structures. Alternatively you can learn how to use indexing.

[Terrence Jenkins]

I have no issue using structures, so I can get this to work for 1 and by using Adam's code in a for loop and changing fieldname line to fieldname(i,1) = stuff; I can generate the list of concatenated names but s.fieldname = morestuff only generates 1 line of variable contents and using s.fieldname(i,1) = morestuff I get the error "Subscripted assignment dimension mismatch.

Answer 1

[Adam]

Just use struct fields instead. This is ghastly to do with variables, but you can create a struct field from a string easily, e.g.:

n = 2;
name = 'Fred';
fieldName = [ name num2str(n) ];

s.( fieldName ) = 3;

[Terrence Jenkins]

tried it but it gives me error using horzcat Dimension of matrices being concatenated are not consistent

[Adam]

Are you concatenating with a scalar number or a vector? Horizontal concatenation between a string and a scalar number converted to string should be fine.

[Terrence Jenkins]

I figured out what I was doing wrong and got it to work with your answer, thank you.

[Image Analyst]

Hopefully you'll reconsider if I also say I think it's not a good idea. So now, Stephen, Adam, and I all think it's not wise or best to do that (even if it's technically possible), and I'm sure others think likewise.