MATLAB: How to detect if a figure exist

Question

To save the figure if one exists with:

saveas(gcf,figname);

the problem is that if no figure exists, it'll create a figure. How to detect if a figure exist before using above saveas command to avoid the creation of an empty figure?

Thanks.

Answer 1

In 2014b and later you can query whether the Graphics Root objects has any children:

g = groot;
isempty(g.Children) % True if there are no open graphics objects, false otherwise