Macro with & character inside

Question

So I'm trying to make a simple macro that creates a vector for me. I'm expecting that I can do \myVec{1,...,5} and the macro can expand to \begin{bmatrix}1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5\end{bmatrix}. However, it seems that there's no way I can get an & symbol to expand correctly. The following code stopped working if I put & instead of , inside the if branch. What am I missing here?

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{pgffor}

\makeatletter
\newcommand{\@length}[2]{ % Usage: \len{list}{counter}
    \foreach\e in{#1}{
        \stepcounter{#2}
    }
}

\newcommand{\@genMatrix}[1]{
    \newcounter{@len}
    \@length{#1}{@len} % get the length of the list after expansion

    \foreach \elem[count=\@i] in {#1}{
        \elem 
        \ifnum\@i<\the@len
            , % it stopped working if I change it to &
        \fi
    }
}

\newcommand{\myVec}[1]{
    \begin{bmatrix}
        \expandafter\@genMatrix{#1}
    \end{bmatrix}
} 
\makeatother

\begin{document}
\begin{equation*}
    \myVec{1,...,5}
\end{equation*}
\end{document}

Answer 1

The following is a little cleaner. You create and append to a macro \@@genMatrix each element sequentially, then correct the addition of an opening &:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{pgffor}

\makeatletter
\newcommand{\@genMatrix}[1]{{%
  \xdef\@@genMatrix{}% Clear \@@genMatrix
  \foreach \elem in {#1}{
    \xdef\@@genMatrix{\@@genMatrix & \elem}% Add & \elem to \@@genMatrix
  }%
  \expandafter\xdef\expandafter\@@genMatrix\expandafter{\expandafter\@gobble\@@genMatrix}% Remove first &
}}

\newcommand{\myVec}[1]{%
  \@genMatrix{#1}% Creates \@@genMatrix containing #1 in &-format
  \begin{bmatrix}
    \@@genMatrix
  \end{bmatrix}
} 
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\[
  \myVec{1,...,5}
\]

\[
  \myVec{3,5,...,17}
\]

\end{document}