I'm new to programming and writing my first function for MATLAB. The name of the function should be "picalc".
The purpose is to accept an "x" and "y" value as input arguments. These values must be plugged into x^2+y^2, and if this result is less than or equal to 1, return true. Otherwise, return false.
Here is what I have so far:
function[true,false]=picalc(x,y);
if x^2+y^2<=1
return true
else
return false
end
Can anyone tell me why this won't work? As it stands, I get the following error:
Error: File: picalc.m Line: 6 Column: 13
Unexpected MATLAB expression.
Thank you very much for your expertise!
In MATLAB, return does not return value as an output of a function call but rather returns control to the invoking function (see documentation here). As such, it does not take argument, because what it does is merely redirecting the flow of the program to the function/statement that invokes the function/statement containing the return statement.
Your function should be written like this:
function result = picalc(x,y);
if x^2+y^2<=1
result = true;
else
result = false;
end
The variable on left hand side of the function declaration is the output variable. By assigning value to this valuable, you are "returning" an output.
Related
I have a mex function that takes in a field of a struct in the third input (i.e. prhs[2]), which is a boolean. If true, it will parse information from the fourth input (i.e. prhs[3]). In a nutshell, this is the code excerpt:
mxValue = mxGetField(prhs[3], 0, "change"); mxLogical *change;
change = mxGetLogicals(mxValue);
mexPrintf("true/false: %i \n", *change);
mexEvalString("drawnow;");
if ( change ) {
mexPrintf("...Parsing info... \n");
mexEvalString("drawnow;");
mxValue = mxGetField(prhs[3], 0, "info");
nRows = mxGetM(mxValue); nCols = mxGetN(mxValue);
Eigen::Map<Eigen::VectorXd> info((double *)mxGetPr(mxValue),nRows);
}
As you can see, I do a printout to see whether the input prhs[2] is true or false. Even if the function prints out false, the if statement gets executed regardless, because I can see the printout ...Parsing info....
Why is my MATLAB mex function ignoring my if statement?
C is not MATLAB! C is C!
You are checking if pointer change has a value. It does indeed have a value, a memory direction e.g. #72BA21, to the location where the value of the boolean is stored.
You can either check the contents of whats inside that specific direction if(*change) as #buzjwa suggest, or grab the information on the array, instead of a pointer to it, using mxGetData.
As a side note: learn to debug, or at least, print statements. a simple mexPrintf() call would have shown you what change contains
function [ muln, varargout ] = my_mul( varargin )
%MY_MUL This function is used to multiply numbers.
% My_mul function multiplies array of entered numbers, and outputs single
% solution.
% For example: my_mul(12, 2, 3, 5) gives ans = 360
if nargout >=1
disp('Error, wrong number of output arguments');
varargout{1} = 0;
return
end
if nargin <= 1
disp('Error, small number of input argumnets');
return
else
muln = 1;
for i = 1:nargin
muln = muln*varargin{i};
end
end
end
Hi, everyone, I'm just doing my assignment for uni and have a qiuck question.
How can I make this function to give an error if it is called with more than one output.(It meant to give only one) Thanks!
In your function definition, you have defined your function to allow for an unlimited number of outputs. The keyword varargout is a place-holder for a variable number of outputs.
As you have stated in your question, you only want one possible output which in your case looks to be muln. So if you simply remove varargout from your function definition, MATLAB should automatically throw an error if too many outputs are requested
function muln = my_mul(varargin)
If you ever do need to use varargout but want to place constraints on how many outputs are provided for any given scenario, you can check the number of output arguments that were requested using nargout and then throw an error with the error function.
if nargout > 4
error('my_mul:TooManyOutputs', 'Too many outputs requested');
end
My opinion is that if a return value is expected the function needs to throw. Otherwise the caller (function calling this function) will expect everything to be ok. Note that disp('Error') gives information to the developer, but it does not give the program any indication on what happens. More importantly, the information does not give any indication of where the error occurs. This can force the developer to do heavy debugging just to find the error, which is completely unnecessary.
The use of variable output arguments should only be used in case a different number of output arguments should be expected. An example is some customized plot function
function varargout = myplot(varargin)
filename = '';
idx = find(strcmp(varargin,'filename'));
if (~isempty(idx) && length(varargin)<idx+1 && ~ischar(varargin{idx+1}))
error('filename property must be followed by a directory');
elseif(~isempty(idx))
filename = varargin{idx+1};
varargin([idx,idx+1]) = [];
end
h = plot(varargin{:});
varagout{1} = h;
if (~isempty(idx))
save(filename, h);
end
varagout{2} = filename;
This function works as plot except it saves the figure to file in case a filename is specified. In case the developer needs the handle it will be returned and in case the developer wants the save directory it can be returned as well. None of these arguments are necessary though. The developer may want to use this function as a standard plot function and this means that the user may want to call myplot as myplot(x,y);which does not return a value. Further note that even if 'filename' is not specified, the function can still return 2 outputs. The second output may be an empty array of char, but two outputs for the caller will never cause a crash.
Also, note that no further error handling is required. The only unchecked crashes are in plot and save. How this is handled may be different for different users and this means that it only is reasonable to let the user catch the error and handle it (as he would have done if save or plot would have thrown).
Apart from this you may also want to have a check so that the number of output variables are within the correct range (in this case 0,1 or 2 outputs).
I want to find the Minimum of a function using
[x,fval] = fminsearch(#(param) esm6(param,identi),result(k,1:end-1),options)
now for each Iteration step i want some values that the function 'esm6' calculates to be saved in an Array. I tried the following:
In the first line of the function i wrote
identi.sim.i_optiIter = identi.sim.i_optiIter + 1;
to have an iteration-variable counting the iteration steps of fminsearch. And later to catch the values that I need I used
identi.sim.guete_werte.gew(identi.sim.i_optiIter,:,:) = y_sim;
identi.sim.guete_werte.ungew(identi.sim.i_optiIter,:,:) = y_sim_ungew;
and to make sure that I use the new values of the identi-struct for the next function call, I wrote this at the end of the function:
assignin('base','identi',identi);
Now unfortunatly it doesn't do what I wanted it to do. Can anyone help me with this?
EDIT:
I made another attempt on it, using an Output function. I extendend my Options like this:
options = optimset('Display','iter','MaxIter',3,'OutputFcn',#outfun);
But now the Problem is that i cannot figure out where to put this outfun. The outfun Looks like this:
function stop = outfun(x,optimvalues,state,iteration,y_sim,y_sim_ungew)
stop = false;
if state == 'iter'
guete_werte.gew(iteration,:,:) = y_sim;
guete_werte.ungew(iteration,:,:) = y_sim_ungew;
end
end
Now the Problem with it is, that i can not put it in the file, where i call the fminsearch, because that is a script. If i put the outputfunction into a separate .m-function file, it is not able to Access the variables of the esm6 function. And if I add it to the esm6-function file, matlab can't find the function and says
??? Error using ==> feval Undefined function or method 'outfun' for
input arguments of type 'struct'.
I am trying to made my own Matlab function to use in Simulink but I have not success. It is a simple If statement with one input and three output values,all of them integer, here the code:
function [ PWM,INA,INB ] = VNH5019(in_Motor)
if in_Motor ==0
INA=0;
INB=0;
PWM=0;
elseif in_Motor>0
if in_Motor>255
in_motor=255;
end
INA=1;
INB=0;
PWM=in_Motor;
elseif in_Motor<0
if in_Motor<-255
in_motor=-255;
end
INA=0;
INB=1;
PWM=-in_Motor;
end
And here the error:
Output argument 'PWM' is not assigned on some execution paths.
Function 'MATLAB Function' (#38.28.35), line 1, column 29:
"VNH5019"
You should probably replace that line:
elseif in_Motor<0
with a simple else.
Try to assing a value to the variables before the ifs. Simulink needs values to be always defined in this type of block functions and it seems that in yours they are, but the compiler thinks they are not. So before any if, asign some value to your outputs.
It will probably work.
In most OO languages, where variables may point to objects, they may also have a null value, which is highly convenient.
In Matlab, I have a function which parses a command, and then returns a cell array, or false (which is equal to zero — which is another common pattern) if it fails:
function re = parse(s)
...
if (invalid)
re = false;
return;
end
end
The problem is that when I check the result, it gives an error:
re = parse(s);
if (false == re)
Undefined function 'eq' for input arguments of type 'cell'.
I've written a function to check it without an error: strcmp('logical', class(re)) && false == re, but that seems to be really slow for use in hot areas of the code, and also inconvenient if I have to add this function to every M file I'm writing.
Using NaN is even worse, because besides throwing that error, it also isn't equal to itself.
What's a better alternative for use with this pattern?
You can use the isequal function to compare any two items without causing that error. For example:
if isequal (re, false)
%code here
end
A good alternative is to use the empty array: [] and isempty(re) to check. This doesn't throw the error.
Reference: http://www.mathworks.com.au/matlabcentral/newsreader/view_thread/148764
If you can change the function parse one solution would be to return two output arguments [re status] = parse(s), where status would be logical variable. Set it to true in case of success, and to false otherwise.
I would use the empty cell array {} if it is not a valid result otherwise. Using empty matrices is MATLAB standard (see Evgeni Sergeev's answer), but using an empty cell array instead of an empty numeric array ensures that you'll always end up with the same type of result.
If, on the other hand, the empty cell array {} is a valid result of your function, then I'd use an exception to signalize a problem:
if invalid
error('Parse:InvalidArgumentError', 'The input is invalid.');
end
Make sure to use an appropriate error ID (first argument to error) so that you can catch exactly that exception when you call the function:
try:
result = parse(something);
catch ME
if strcmp(ME.identifier, 'Parse:InvalidArgumentError')
fprintf('Ooops\n');
else
% Some other error
ME.rethrow();
end
end
I think the problem is that matlab functions don't return pointers but copies of values.
IMHO the best best approach would be to define your own "pointer" class. Inside you can define an "isNull()" command or even override comparison to produce the behavior you desire.