How to access inbuilt functions? - matlab

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.

Related

How to execute functions in Live editor in MATLAB

I recently started using Live editor in MATLAB and I inserted a function inside it. But, apparently, I cannot execute that particular section of code where I type function. Even the section break disappears.
Is it that using function is not suitable for live editor?
Apparently the MATLAB parser did not join the 20th century until partway through 2016, and could not interpret function definitions in scripts (live or otherwise) until R2016b. In the web-based docs, there is a notice at Add Functions to Scripts, but it took me a while to find this out because the builtin docs in R2016a or earlier do not explicitly contain this information. It is implied by the tutorials that tell you to create a new file for each function (which to me, a python programmer, sounds more like strange advice than a restriction).
Trying to define a function in a live script gives confusing errors. For example, if you create a cell with this content:
function y = myfunc(x)
y = 2*x;
end
It will underline the keyword function with a popup error that reads:
Parse error at FUNCTION: usage might be invalid MATLAB syntax.
Might be? Whom shall I ask? Upon running the cell, it prints an error after the first line:
All functions in a script must be closed with an end.
I eventually made this discovery myself thanks to a helpful message if the first thing you happen to do in a new empty live script is to start typing function on the first line; as soon as you hit the spacebar a message pops up at the top saying:
Functions and classes are not supported in the Live Editor. To continue, save the file as a plain text code file (.m).
It should work as when you add a function inside a script. For example, like this:
What function are you exactly trying to code?

Run exe in Matlab in for loop most efficiently

I wounder what is the most efficient way to run a program, given as executable, from Matlab many times in a for loop. At the moment I use the following Code:
for i = 1:100
system('MyProgram.exe');
% Do something with the output from the .exe
end
So, from the profiler I know that 99,9% of the time is used in the execution of the Program itself. My question is basically if there is a more efficient way to run executables in general from within Matlab?
I have read that everytime I run an exe like described above, a process is created which has to initialize the Matlab runtime environment... Is there possibly a way to avoid this by only doing the initialization once and from there on run the programm multiple times?
I am guessing your can't directly modify the .exe's you are given, so perhaps there is a way to instead of calling the .exe directly, you could call a .bash shell script.
I would imagine that if you do this and within the shell script check to see if a workspace is already open to associate the execution of the .exe with a specific process ID. Although I would guess that when the executable finishes it closes the session.
Just throwing some stuff out there :P I have had lots of trouble with how Matlab handles this kind of thing (Also things like Excel).
Hope you figure this out.
EDIT: I found some possible examples here Example Descriptions
-Kyle

Elusive MATLAB built-in function

I am trying to read the following internal MATLAB function:
>>which visionInitializeAndExpandCheckerboard
built-in (C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2015a\toolbox\vision\vision\visionInitializeAndExpandCheckerboard)
But it appears to be hidden away! And very well hidden.
None of the following methods to access it have worked:
Highlighting the name and pressing Ctrl+D.
Typing "edit visionInitializeAndExpandCheckerboard" in the command line.
Searching for the file in Matlab's own FindFiles.
Searching for the file on the disk.
Trying to Step Into the function in debug mode (I just get the output as if I had requested Step Out instead).
Btw, the reason I am looking into this is that the parent function detectCheckerboardPoints has seriously declined in performance from R2015a to R2016b and I am trying to figure out why.
The internal function is compiled native code, so you will not be able to see its source. If you see a performance degradation, you should call Mathworks tech support and complain. If it is something they can fix, they will send you a patch, and fix it in the next release.

Is it possible to figure out which if statements are being fufilled in matlab

I have a lot of if statements throughout my code and was wondering if there is anyway in Matlab to see which if statements are being used when I run my code. I know I could put variables throughout my code and see which ones are being triggered, but I was wondering if there is an easier way. Maybe a built in MATLAB function or something.
Thanks
Type profile viewer in the command line of matlab and execute your code from there. There you can see in the profile report how many times each line is called as well as how long it takes executing the line of code.
More information:
http://www.mathworks.nl/help/matlab/ref/profile.html
http://www.mathworks.nl/help/matlab/matlab_prog/profiling-for-improving-performance.html
To answer precesely to your question, there is a command to log every line the execution is going through. And if you're familiar with unix-like platform, it is the same command: echo. See the Matlab help of echo to see how you can use it. For example, echo on all sets echoing on for all function files.
Besides that, I advise you two things better than analysing the output of echoing a whole script:
look at every warning in the code editor, and apply meaningful corrections.
use the profiler of matlab, as stated in the answer from EJG89, it is indeed a powerful tool!

Can I change the prompt in MATLAB?

I never work with the GUI and am always inside a terminal (also full screen, so no title bar) set with the -nodesktop -nodisplay option. I also have different servers that I connect to, to run matlab and each of those have different restrictions on hogging computational resources. Since it's hard to remember which server I'm in,especially if I have multiple sessions open, I was wondering if I could change the prompt to display the server name. Try as I might, I couldn't find a resource that explains how to go about it (I'm beginning to think Mathworks doesn't support it). I know, a workaround would be to simply write a function call to system('hostname') and put the function in the path, so that it's about as easy as typing pwd to find the directory. I'd like to know if there's something more elegant.
There is a submission on the MathWorks File Exchange that can do this for you: setPrompt by Yair Altman. Using it in R2010b, I noticed that I was getting the warning message:
Warning: Possible deprecated use of set on a Java callback.
> In setPrompt at 115
Which I was able to suppress using the warning function like so:
warning('off','MATLAB:hg:JavaSetHGProperty');
And here's how I changed the prompt to the host name using the system function:
>> [~,systemString] = system('hostname');
>> setPrompt([deblank(systemString) '>> ']);
P11-4504>>
The function deblank is used to remove trailing whitespace (in this case a newline) from the string.
NOTE: The above changes (suppressed warning and modified prompt) don't persist after you quit and restart MATLAB, so you could put the above code in your startup.m file to apply them automatically every time you start a new session.