function obj = 	validateAndAssignLabels(obj,newLabels,varIndices,fullAssignment,fixDups,fixEmpties,fixIllegal)

            import matlab.internal.datatypes.isScalarText

            import matlab.internal.datatypes.isText

            if ~fullAssignment && isScalarText(newLabels) && (fixEmpties || ~strcmp(newLabels,'')) 

                % Accept one character vector for (partial) assignment to one name, allow empty character vectors per caller.

                newLabels = {newLabels};

            elseif isText(newLabels,true) && (fixEmpties || ~any(strcmp(newLabels,''),'all')) 

                % Accept a cellstr, allow empty character vectors per caller.

                newLabels = newLabels(:)'; % a row vector, conveniently forces any empty to 0x1 

            else

                error(message('MATLAB:table:InvalidVarNames'));

            end 

            if fixEmpties 

                % Fill in empty names if allowed, and make them unique with respect

                % to the other new names. If not allowed, an error was already thrown.

                % This is here to fill in missing variable names when reading from a file.

                [newLabels,wasEmpty] = fillEmptyNames(newLabels,varIndices);

                newLabels = matlab.lang.makeUniqueStrings(newLabels,wasEmpty,namelengthmax);

            end 

            switch convertStringsToChars(fixIllegal) 

                case {true, 'fixIllegal'} 

                    exceptionMode = 'warnSavedLegacy';

                case {false, 'errorIllegal'} 

                    exceptionMode = 'error'; 

                case {'fixTooLong'}

                    exceptionMode = 'warnSaved';

            end 

            originalLabels = newLabels; 

            [newLabels,wasMadeValid] = obj.makeValidName(newLabels,exceptionMode); 

            if fixDups 

                % Make the new names (in their possibly modified form) unique with respect to

                % each other and to existing names.

                allNewLabels = obj.labels; allNewLabels(varIndices) = newLabels;

                allNewLabels = matlab.lang.makeUniqueStrings(allNewLabels,varIndices,namelengthmax);

                newLabels = allNewLabels(varIndices);

            elseif fullAssignment 

                % Check that the whole set of new names is unique

                obj.checkDuplicateLabels(newLabels); 

            else

                % Make sure invalid names that have been fixed do not duplicate any of the other new

                % names.

                newLabels = matlab.lang.makeUniqueStrings(newLabels,wasMadeValid,namelengthmax);

                % Check that the new names do not duplicate each other or existing names.

                allNewLabels = obj.labels; allNewLabels(varIndices) = newLabels;

                obj.checkDuplicateLabels(newLabels,allNewLabels,varIndices);

            end 

            obj = obj.assignLabels(newLabels,fullAssignment,varIndices); 

            if startsWith(exceptionMode,'warnSaved') && any(wasMadeValid) 

                if ~obj.hasDescrs

                    obj.descrs = repmat({''},1,obj.length);

                    obj.hasDescrs = true;

                end

                str = { getString(message('MATLAB:table:uistrings:ModifiedVarNameDescr')) };

                obj.descrs(varIndices(wasMadeValid)) = strcat(str, {' '''}, originalLabels(wasMadeValid), {''''});

            end 

        end