Call a function inside a script from another script

Hey people, I have a short question and couldn't find an answer to that:

I have a script with several functions and I want to call a particular function inside this script, but from another script.

If that sounds confusing here a quick example:

m-File "AllFunctions"

function a
a = 1;
function b
b = 1;

m-File "Main"

>>> Now I want to get access to function a from the "AllFunctions"-m-File.

Would be great if you can help me or if you recommend a better way handling such a problem.

Thanks!

Leo

Answer 1

[Geoff Hayes]

Leonard - I'm pretty sure that you can't do that. If your m-file is named AllFunctions.m, then either it is a script that you can run or it is a function which has the same name as the file which you can call (passing in arguments, getting a result, etc.), but you cannot access any other function that has been defined in that file.

If I wanted to do something like what you suggest, then I would create a class with static methods. I've done this for C++ when I wanted a class that had some common algorithms, so there is no reason why you can't do something similar in MATLAB. Suppose the following is your class definition (saved in a file called AllFunctions.m)

 classdef AllFunctions

    methods(Static)

        function [x] = a
            x = 1;
        end

        function [x] = b
            x = 2;
        end

        function [x] = c(var)
            x = 3*var;
        end

    end
 end

There isn't all that much to it: the class definition with a section for static methods, in this case, for the functions a, b, and c. In the Command Window, I can invoke each function as

 >> AllFunctions.a

 ans =
     1

 >> AllFunctions.b

 ans =
     2

 >> AllFunctions.c(27)
 ans =
    81

So using a class, you should be able to do something along the lines of what you want.

[Leonard]

Thanks, I will try it that way!

[Leonard]

Implemented it today and it works awesome! Thank you so much! This is great :)

[Geoff Hayes]

Glad it worked out!