accessing a column of a matrix using strings

["Leeds, Mark" <mleeds@mlp.com>]

I think this question is pretty basic but i have been stuck for a while.

 

i have a matrix whose columns are strings such as "8344", "8312" etc.

 

later on, in a program, i have a variable called ticker1 which is a string

such as the above. so , i want to access the column corresponding

to whatever string ticker1 is.

 

i tried matrix[,ticker1]  : this gives me back weird stuff which i kind

of expected.

 

i tried matrix[,get(ticker1)] : this gives me back "object "8344" not found.

 

does anyone know how to do this ? i'm gonna play

around some more but thanks in advance.

 

                                                                        mark