data.default = {[0 3.2 6.4 12.8 25.6 51.2] 100 2.5 0};
data.new = {0 0 0 0};
data.str = { 'coherences' 'numtrials' 'period' 'sigMT'};
data.tag = {'edit1' 'edit2' 'edit3' 'edit4'};

function editBoxString(handles,data)
n=length(data.default);
for i=1:1    % for debugging; should substitute with "n"
    edit_handle = findobj('Tag', data.tag{i});
%    get(edit_handle, 'Tag')
%    edit_handle
%    handles.edit1
    b =(['set(' num2str(edit_handle) ', ''String'',' ...
           ' num2str(data.' data.str{i} '))'])
%    eval(['set(handles.edit1, ''String'',' ...
%           ' num2str(data.' data.str{i} '))']) % works but not general

   eval=(['set(' num2str(handles.edit1) ', ''String'',' ...
           ' num2str(data.' data.str{i} '))'])  % fails to run

%    eval('b')
%    disp('passed eval(''b'')')
%    eval(['set(' findobj('Tag', data.tag{i}) ', ''String'',' ...
%           ' num2str(data.' data.str{i} '))'])  % fails  
%    eval(['set(' num2str(edit_handle) ', ''String'',' ...
%           ' num2str(data.' data.str{i} '))']) % fails; the preferred way
end
%set(handles.edit1, 'String', num2str(data.coherences))