MATLAB: 2012b not backwards compatible

backwards compatibilityMATLABr2012b

Hi, I've installed 2012b yesterday, and to my big dissapointment, it seems that this version does not admit any more names of m files separated by spaces.

If this is true, then I will have to go over my old files and rename every space to something with an "_", as i used to do 15 years ago with Fortran.

So please tell me this is not true, or if it is, tell me why having to go over all my old programs and change the names is good for me.

Thanks a lot,

Gustavo Wolf

Best Answer

Spaces in names of M-files did never work in Matlab.

The example on the docs is misleading http://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/matlab_env/understanding-file-locations-in-matlab.html:

delete('temp file.m')

But see http://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/function.html:

 The name of the file should match the name of the first function in the file. Valid function names begin with an alphabetic character, and can contain letters, numbers, or underscores.

Onc could claim that only the function name must be valid, but the file name is allowed to differ. But remember that the file name determines which function is called. And when you have three function files like the following, spaces would make a valid parsing impossible:

fun1.m
fun2.m
fun1 fun2.m

What should happen for this line:

fun1 fun2

PS. I have a MEX-tool to use spaces, control characters and even the empty string as fieldnames of a struct. While dynamic fieldnames work perfectly, e.g. S.(' '), the M-File parser rejects these names in the code and this files: |S. | (a space after the dot). What a pitty.

Related Solutions

MATLAB: How to send data from one function to another

You can pass the variable out from the first function and pass it in to the other function. E.g.

% File fun1.m
function result = fun1
result = rand(3);
end
% File fun2.m
function fun2(x)
disp(x)
end

And then at the command line:

>> x = fun1
x =
    0.7577    0.6555    0.0318
    0.7431    0.1712    0.2769
    0.3922    0.7060    0.0462
>> fun2(x)
    0.7577    0.6555    0.0318
    0.7431    0.1712    0.2769
    0.3922    0.7060    0.0462

Another way is to use the 'userdata' property of the 0 process. E.g.,

% File fun3.m
function fun3
result = rand(3);
set(0,'userdata',result);
disp(result);
end
% File fun4.m
function fun4
x = get(0,'userdata');
disp(x)
end

Then at the command line:

>> fun3
    0.0971    0.3171    0.4387
    0.8235    0.9502    0.3816
    0.6948    0.0344    0.7655
>> fun4
    0.0971    0.3171    0.4387
    0.8235    0.9502    0.3816
    0.6948    0.0344    0.7655

MATLAB: Executing .m files function in R2015b is not working properly

Ugh, invalid filenames and anti-pattern dynamic variable names... it seems that your task was explicitly designed to torture interns with! It is a lesson in how NOT to design code and data. Most likely you should actually parse the files to get the data, rather than try to run them, and so avoid this entire ugly, fragile mess.

As for your original question, try adding

clear('copy')

before run (experiment to find the best location), to clear the script from memory:

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/29096-stale-files-used-instead-of-updated-files#answer_164463

I also recommend using a name that is less likely to be used elsewhere, e.g. mycopy.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

MATLAB: How to send data from one function to another

MATLAB: Executing .m files function in R2015b is not working properly

Related Question