How to make two rows of a matrix correspond to a vector

Hi everyone. I've been trying to figure out for the past hour how I can make two columns of a matrix correspond to a vector:

elements =

 H
He
Li
Be
 B
 C
 N
 O
 F
Ne
Na
Mg
Al
Si
 P
 S
Cl
Ar

atomicweights =

Columns 1 through 7

    1.0100    4.0000    6.9400    9.0100   10.8100   12.0100   14.0100

Columns 8 through 14

   16.0000   19.0000   20.1800   23.0000   24.3100   26.9800   28.0900

Columns 15 through 18

   30.9700   32.0600   35.4500   39.9500

As you can see, the matrix "elements" has two columns, and 18 rows; the vector "atomicweights" has 1 row and 18 elements. I want to make it so " H" corresponds to 1.0100, "He" corresponds to 4.0000, etc..

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

[Andrei Bobrov]

s = {'H';'He';'Li';'Be';'B';'C';'N';'O';'F';'Ne';'Na';'Mg';'Al';'Si';'P';'S';'Cl';'Ar'};
n = [1.0100    4.0000    6.9400    9.0100   10.8100   12.0100   14.0100 16.0000   19.0000   20.1800   23.0000   24.3100   26.9800   28.0900 30.9700   32.0600   35.4500   39.9500];

out = [s, num2cell(n)];

or

elements = cell2struct(num2cell(n'),s,1);

> elements.H

ans =  
    1.0100

Answer 2

[Jos (10584)]

For linear indexing it does not matter how a vector is stored internally. It matters for display purposes (and computations!).

A = [1 2 3]

B = [10 ; 20 ; 30] % row in B corresponds to column in A

ix = 2 ;

A(ix)

B(ix)