There is a function in Matlab called copulafit. How can I see the code that underlies this function? Many numpy and scipy functions for Python are readily open source on Github, but I can't find Matlab functions on Github for some reason
If you have MATLAB installed you can either highlight the function name then secondary/right-click and select Open "copulafit" or alternatively type open copulafit in the command window. Yeah, I believe MATLAB isn't open source as of this posting time/date. Possibly why the reason for the lack of GitHub resources. Octave might be something that might be interesting to look into.
Somewhere between R2010b and R2018a, Matlab seems to have removed dos as a built-in function.
In R2010b:
>> which dos
built-in (C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2010b\toolbox\matlab\general\dos)
In R2018a:
>> which dos
C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2018a\toolbox\matlab\general\dos.m
Why, and when, was this change made?
If you open the file dos.m you can notice that is a wrapper to the built-in function
system so the answar might be that MathWorks has improved the system function to run correctly both Windows command and Unix command so a built-in function for a wrapper is useless due the definition of built-in function:
A built-in function is part of the MATLAB executable. MATLAB does not implement these functions in the MATLAB language. Although most built-in functions have a .m file associated with them, this file only supplies documentation for the function.
I'm using the Matlab publishing tool Latex to add formula's
I want to show an error function: e.g. erf(x). The problem is that this function is not default in latex. As a result you will get something like "er f(x)".
Now, in Latex you can add this new function using.
\DeclareMathOperator{\erf}{erf}
However, Matlab does not accept this.
Error updating Text.
Character vector must have valid interpreter syntax:
$$\DeclareMathOperator{\erf}{erf}$$
I've been looking around, but found nothing, so help would be appreciated.
Short version of question
In recent versions of Matlab (I have seen it in R2014b and R2015a on Windows), when you type help foo you get a brief description of the function and its signatures. For example, typing help bsxfun produces something like this (only with better format):
This MATLAB function applies the element-by-element binary operation specified by the function handle fun to arrays A and B, with singleton expansion enabled.
C = bsxfun(fun,A,B)
Reference page for bsxfun
See also arrayfun, repmat
Other uses of bsxfun
distcomp/bsxfun
This is of course only a summary of the actual documentation. To get the full documentation you need to type doc foo. This opens the HTML help browser, which takes quite some time (at least on some computers).
Is there a way to get the full help in the command window (thus avoiding the help browser), as it used to be in older Matlab versions?
Long version of question
To look into this in more detail, I'll define "old" Matlab versions as those that don't have HTML help, and "new" versions as those that do. I also need to give each type of help a name, in order to refer to them:
FP (Full, Plain): full help in the form of plain text, shown in Matlab command window (old style).
SH (Summarized, HTML): summarized help in the form of HTML, shown in Matlab command window.
FH (Full, HTML): full help in the form of HTML, shown in the help browser.
As is well known, the text for FP help is contained in the first comment lines in the file defining the function. In new Matlab versions, functions may also have an associated HTML file. This file contains SH help in an HTML tag, and FH help in HTML code.
Possible behaviour is:
In old Matlab versions, help foo produced FP help.
In new Matlab versions, help foo produces SH help if foo has an associated HTML help file, and FP help if it doesn't.
In new Matlab versions, doc foo produces FH help if foo has an associated HTML help file. If it doesn't, FP help is shown in the help browser (without format).
So the problem is more properly phrased as: how to show FP help in new Matlab versions when foo has an associated HTML help file. The question is meaningful because
Most Matlab functions do have an associated HTML help file.
Most Matlab functions, even built-in functions (that have no m-code), have and m-file containing FP help.
An additional motivation is that in some cases the FP documentation contains features that don't appear in the FH documentation (see for example here).
Original answer (Matlab versions R2014b, R2015a)
Although the documentation doesn't tell, the help function in these Matlab versions supports zero, one or two output arguments. You can check this typing open help and looking at the function signature:
function [out, docTopic] = help(varargin)
In essence, help works internally as follows:
It creates an object called process, of class helpUtils.helpProcess, by calling the class constructor as:
process = helpUtils.helpProcess(nargout, nargin, varargin);
where nargout, argin and varargin are those with which help was called.
It runs the method process.getHelpText, which calls the undocumented, built-in function helpfunc, and as a result sets the property process.helpStr. This property contains the help string which is shown in the command window.
As it turns out, at least on Windows, depending on the value of nargout (which gets passed to the constructor helpUtils.helpProcess) the resulting help string will be FP or SH. Namely, it will be FP if nargout>0, and SH if nargout==0. You can check this by typing the following code (adapted from help.m) directly in the command window:
process = helpUtils.helpProcess(1, 1, {'bsxfun'});
process.getHelpText
process.helpStr
This will produce FP help. On the other hand, changing the first 1 (which corresponds to nargout in the actual call) into a 0,
process = helpUtils.helpProcess(0, 1, {'bsxfun'});
process.getHelpText
process.helpStr
will produce SH help.
I don't know why this is so, that is, how it works on a deeper level than this. All I know is that the getHelp method calls the undocumented helpfunc, which is at least involved in producing FP help.
So, to get FP help you need to call help with one or two output arguments. For example,
str = help('foo')
assigns the FP help text to variable str and displays it. Or you can use
disp(help('foo'))
which also has the effect of calling help with an (implicit) output argument.
To have this behaviour from the standard command help foo, you could define a help function to override Matlab's help, and place it in your Matlab document folder. This folder normally appears first in the path (or you can make sure it does by editing startup.m), and thus has precedence. The new function will essentially call Matlab's help with one output argument, and then display the resulting (FP) help text. In order to call the overriden function it is necessary to temporarily change to its folder:
function help(varargin)
if isempty(varargin)
varargin = {'help'}; %// `help` should be equivalent to `help help`
end
d = pwd; %// take note of current folder
cd(fullfile(matlabroot, 'toolbox', 'matlab', 'helptools')) %// folder where the
%// standard `help` function is
disp(help(varargin{1}));
cd(d) %// restore folder
So now, finally, help foo produces the old-style (FP) help.
Edit for Matlab version R2015b
In Matlab R2015b the behaviour seems to have changed for the better. Typing help foo no longer produces SH help. It's not exactly FP either. In fact it's better than that: it produces FH help but in the command Window, not in the browser. Or, equivalently, it produces FP help but with links and better formattting.
So no need to tweak anymore!
Edit for Matlab version R2018a
Matlab R2018a again gives SH help. The solution provided in this answer works (that is, produces FP help).
So back to tweaking!
A better way is to include the full path to the function when using the help command, then old style full help is displayed and the links also work, e.g. try:
help surf
help(fullfile(matlabroot, 'toolbox', 'matlab', 'graph3d', 'surf.m'))
I’ve just submitted an override help function based on this to MATLAB FEX:Full Command Line Help
As what should I be typing in the Command Window to get the function file to open?
Usually I get a link to them when debugging and an error occurs, but what command can be used to access them directly?
edit functionName, e.g. edit repmat.
There are built-in functions that are not written in Matlab, but for these functions you cannot take a look at the code even if an error occurs.