Is it possible to define a function with a function handler as an argument in Matlab?
I've tried with
function x = name(#f,gh)
but I get an error message stating Invalid syntax at '#'.
You cannot use syntax involving # in function definition. The anonymous function handle would do the work:
function x = SO_Example(h,gh)
x = h(gh);
And you can call the function as follows:
SO_Example(#(a)a.^2 , 2)
ans = 4
Or like this:
h = #(a)a.^2;
SO_Example(h,2)
ans = 4
Please, see comments for additional explanations
Related
It was suggested in this comment that there is a difference between how Matlab and Python pass around functions. From what I can tell by looking and using the two, there is no difference between the two, but maybe I'm missing something?
In Matlab, you would create a quick function handle like this:
fun = #(x) x.^2 + 1;
In Python, using a lambda function, you could create a similar function like this:
def fun(x):
return x^2
In both languages, it's possible to send the term 'fun' to another function as an argument - but the commenter I linked to insinuated that they are not the same and/or need to be used differently.
What am I missing?
The first comment seems to simply reiterate the idea that you can pass a MATLAB function handle as an argument (although the answer didn't state anything that would make me think otherwise). The second comment seemed to interpret this to mean that the first commenter thought that you couldn't do this in Python and responded to state that you can use either a lambda or pass the function directly.
Regardless, assuming that you use them correctly, a function handle in MATLAB is functionally equivalent to using either a lambda or function object as an input argument in Python.
In python, if you don't append the () to the end of the function, it doesn't execute the function and instead yields the function object which can then be passed to another function.
# Function which accepts a function as an input
def evalute(func, val)
# Execute the function that's passed in
return func(val)
# Standard function definition
def square_and_add(x):
return x**2 + 1
# Create a lambda function which does the same thing.
lambda_square_and_add = lambda x: x**2 + 1
# Now pass the function to another function directly
evaluate(square_and_add, 2)
# Or pass a lambda function to the other function
evaluate(lambda_square_and_add, 2)
In MATLAB, you have to use a function handle because MATLAB attempts to execute a function even if you omit the ().
function res = evaluate(func, val)
res = func(val)
end
function y = square_and_add(x)
y = x^2 + 1;
end
%// Will try to execute square_and_add with no inputs resulting in an error
evaluate(square_and_add)
%// Must use a function handle
evaluate(#square_and_add, 2)
I have a MATLAB file that contains a single top-level function, called sandbox. That function in turn contains two nested functions, mysum and myprod, which are identical in functionality and what parameters they allow except that one uses #sum internally and the other uses #prod internally. My goal is to create a wrapper function to use in both mysum and myprod that takes care of all the validation and input parsing. This function is called applyFunc.
Here's where it gets tricky. mysum and myprod come in two forms:
mysum(v) returns sum(v, 1).
mysum(v, 'imag') returns sum(v, 1) + 1i
Any other combinations of input should throw an error.
I'm having trouble using inputParser to parse these various combinations of input, specifically the optional string input. Here's the code:
function sandbox()
%% Data
v = [1 4; 3 3];
%% Calculations
s = mysum(v);
si = mysum(v, 'imag');
p = myprod(v);
pi = myprod(v, 'imag');
%% Accuracy tests
assert(isequal(s, [4 7]))
assert(isequal(si, [4+1i 7+1i]))
assert(isequal(p, [3 12]))
assert(isequal(pi, [3+1i 12+1i]))
function x = mysum(varargin)
x = applyFunc(#sum, varargin{:});
end
function x = myprod(varargin)
x = applyFunc(#prod, varargin{:});
end
end
function x = applyFunc(func, varargin)
p = inputParser();
p.addRequired('func', #(x) validateattributes(x, {'function_handle'}, {'scalar'}));
p.addRequired('v', #(x) validateattributes(x, {'double'}, {}, 'applyFunc:msg', 'v'));
p.addOptional('imag', '', #(x) validatestring(x, {'imag', ''})); % THIS LINE IS THE PROBLEM
p.parse(func, varargin{:});
f = p.Results.func;
v = p.Results.v;
strflag = p.Results.imag;
x = f(v);
if ~isempty(strflag)
validatestring(strflag, {'imag'});
x = x + 1i;
end
end
The line that's causing the problem is this one (as marked in the code above):
p.addOptional('imag', '', #(x) validatestring(x, {'imag', ''}));
The documentation for inputParser says that:
For optional string inputs, specify a validation function. Without a validation function, the input parser interprets valid string inputs as invalid parameter names and throws an error.
Unfortunately I don't have any idea how to do this. Is there something simple Im missing or what? If the 'imag' argument isn't passed at all (as in the assignment of s and p), the code works fine, but if I do pass it, I get this error:
Error using sandbox>applyFunc (line 32)
The value of 'imag' is invalid. It must satisfy the function:
#(x)validatestring(x,{'imag',''}).
Error in sandbox/mysum (line 18)
x = applyFunc(#sum, varargin{:});
Error in sandbox (line 7)
si = mysum(v, 'imag');
Any help?
The problem is that validatestring returns the matching string from the cell argument ({'imag',''}) rather than a Boolean indicating if it passes validation. Instead, use strcmp and any:
#(x) any(strcmp(x,{'imag', ''}))
Also, with validatestring, if the input string did not match either 'imag' or '' (actually just 'imag' since empty strings only match in R2014a+), it would throw an error rather than returning false so that the inputParser could return the appropriate error.
Another nice way to fix the problem is to change the syntax of applyFunc entirely so that instead of just 'imag' as an optional string input argument, use a Parameter-Value with 'imag' as the parameter and a validated boolean as the input.
The input definition suggested by Amro in the comments:
p.addParameter('imag', false, #(x)validateattributes(x, {'logical'}, {'scalar'}))
The usage:
mysum(x,'imag',true)
mysum(x) % default is equivalent to mysum(x,'imag',false)
This would simplify the rest of the code with p.Result.imag being a logical scalar. I would suggest:
x = f(v) + p.Result.imag*1i;
The problem is not inputParser, I think the issue is with validatestring.
1) First it does not match on empty strings:
>> x = ''
x =
''
>> validatestring(x, {'imag',''})
Expected input to match one of these strings:
imag,
The input did not match any of the valid strings.
Caused by:
Error using validatestring>checkString (line 85)
Expected input to be a row vector.
2) Second, if it successfully matches, it returns the resolved string (from one of the valid choice), instead of true/false. inputParser requires that the validation function either return a boolean, or nothing but throws error on failure.
I want to call a function in Matlab using another one, which has the same number of inputs and outputs. In fact, those inputs and outputs have the same name.
Example:
function [a,b] = gettwo(matrix,string,varargin)
[a,b] = getone(matrix,string,varargin{:});
end
This code produces the following error:
Error in getone(line 3)
aux = 'matrix(varargin{:})';
Output argument "b" (and maybe others) not assigned during
call to "C:\Users\baister\Documents\MATLAB\soft\getone.m>getone".
Error in results (line 4)
[a,b] = getone(matrix,string,varargin{:});
How should I wrap getone?
(The definitive function will have more lines than those shown in this post.)
Thanks.
The general wrapping for variable number of outputs should work like this:
function [varargout] = gettwo(matrix,string,varargin)
[varargout{1:nargout}] = getone(matrix,string,varargin{:});
end
You'll get the same error as above though, in case you do
[a,b] = gettwo(...);
and getone returns only 1 argument.
I created an anonymous function inside a script and I can't get MATLAB to run the fminsearch? Here's an what I have so far:
V=x(1);
f=x(2);
q=#(x) (pi.*D.*L)./(1000.*V.*f);
fminsearch(#q,x);
The variables D and L are defined, but MATLAB gives me the following error:
Error: File: Testing.m Line: 51 Column: 17
"q" was previously used as a variable, conflicting with its use here as the name of a function or command.
See "How MATLAB Recognizes Command Syntax" in the MATLAB documentation for details.
q is not mentioned before this command. What am I doing wrong?
Another thing that could solve my problem is to get my script to write a function file, but how to do that?
Remove the second #:
V=x(1);
f=x(2);
q=#(x) (pi.*D.*L)./(1000.*V.*f);
fminsearch(q,x);
q is a function handle. fminsearch expects a function handle. You can create a function handle out of a function using an # (e.g. #min), but you don't need to do that here.
You can also write the anonymous function inline with the search command:
V=x(1);
f=x(2);
fminsearch(#(x) (pi.*D.*L)./(1000.*V.*f),x);
UPDATE (credits to #wakjah)
For your code to do anything sensible, you should use the argument x of the anonymous function:
x0 = [initialV, initialF];
fminsearch(#(x) (pi.*D.*L)./(1000.*x(1).*x(2)), x0);
#function creates a function handle for an existing function.
q = #(x) whatever... creates a function handle called q.
But, you can't create a function handle for a function handle, only for a function.
See this:
>> fones = #ones
fones =
#ones
>> ffones = #fones
Error: "fones" was previously used as a
variable,
conflicting with its use here as the name
of a function or command.
See MATLAB Programming, "How MATLAB
Recognizes Function Calls That Use
Command Syntax" for details.
In Matlab, a function handle is a kind of a pointer to a function and is distinct from a function (unlike in some other languages where the a function identifier can be passed and stored as any other variable).
It's important to note that calling a function and a function handle results in the same behaviour. Except for the case where the identifier is used without any parentheses following it:
>> ones
ans =
1
>> fones
fones =
#ones
>> ones(2)
ans =
1 1
1 1
>> fones(2)
ans =
1 1
1 1
Working on an assignment involving Genetic Algorithms (loads of headaches, loads of fun). I need to be able to test differing crossover methods and differing mutation methods, to compare their results (part of the paper I have to write for the course). As such, I want to just pass the function names into the Repopulate method, as function handles.
function newpop = Repopulate(population, crossOverMethod, mutationMethod)
...
child = crossOverMethod(parent1, parent2, #mutationMethod);
...
function child = crossOverMethod(parent1, parent2, mutationMethod)
...
if (mutateThisChild == true)
child = mutationMethod(child);
end
...
The key point here is like 3, parameter 3: how do I pass mutationMethod down another level? If I use the # symbol, I get told:
"mutationMethod" was previously used as a variable,
conflicting with its use here as the name of a function or command.
If I don't use the # symbol, then mutationMethod gets called, with no parameters, and is quite unhappy.
While I am aware that yes, I could just rewrite my code to make it work differently, I'm now curious as to how to make it actually work.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Actually just dont use the # symbol, use it when you call the Repopulate function instead.
Example:
function x = fun1(a,m)
x = fun2(a,m);
end
function y = fun2(b,n)
y = n(b);
end
which we call as:
> fun1([1 2 3], #sum)
6
Refer to the documentation for Passing Function Handle Arguments
Note you can check if the argument is a function handle by: isa(m,'function_handle'). Therefore you can make your function Repopulate more flexible by accepting both a function handle and a function name as a string:
function x = fun(a,m)
if ischar(m)
f = str2func(m);
elseif isa(m,'function_handle')
f = m;
else
error('expecting a function')
end
x = fun2(a,f);
end
which now can be called both ways:
fun1([1 2 3], #sum)
fun1([1 2 3], 'sum')