a <- c(1, 2, 3, 4)
b <- c("Y", "Y", "N", "N")
cbind(a, b)

a   b
[1,] "1" "Y"
[2,] "2" "Y"
[3,] "3" "N"
[4,] "4" "N"

a
[1,] "1Y"
[2,] "2Y"
[3,] "3N"
[4,] "4N"

paste(1:4, letters[1:4])
# [1] "1 a" "2 b" "3 c" "4 d"
paste(1:4, letters[1:4], sep="") # same as paste0
# [1] "1a" "2b" "3c" "4d"

matrix(paste(1:4, letters[1:4], sep=""))
#      [,1]
# [1,] "1a"
# [2,] "2b"
# [3,] "3c"
# [4,] "4d"