Getting Started

Scripts and Functions

Topics covered in this section are

• Scripts
• Functions
• Global Variables
• Passing String Arguments to Functions
• The eval Function
• Vectorization
• Preallocation
• Function Handles
• Function Functions

MATLAB is a powerful programming language as well as an interactive computational environment. Files that contain code in the MATLAB language are called M-files. You create M-files using a text editor, then use them as you would any other MATLAB function or command.

There are two kinds of M-files:

• Scripts, which do not accept input arguments or return output arguments. They operate on data in the workspace.
• Functions, which can accept input arguments and return output arguments. Internal variables are local to the function.

If you're a new MATLAB programmer, just create the M-files that you want to try out in the current directory. As you develop more of your own M-files, you will want to organize them into other directories and personal toolboxes that you can add to your MATLAB search path.

If you duplicate function names, MATLAB executes the one that occurs first in the search path.

To view the contents of an M-file, for example, myfunction.m, use

• type myfunction
  

Structures

Scripts