Unrecognised function in MATLAB

function [m,s] = stat(x)
    n = length(x);
    m = sum(x)/n;
    s = sqrt(sum((x-m).^2/n));
end

>> values = [12.7, 45.4, 98.9, 26.6, 53.1];
[ave,stdev] = stat(values)
Unrecognized function or variable 'stat'.

Could anyone tell me what's wrong with this? It is literally MATLAB's 'function with multiple outputs' example.

[Stephen23]

"Could anyone tell me what's wrong with this?"

Nothing at all is wrong with stat: when I save it in the current directory as a file named stat.m it works perfectly:

>> values = [12.7, 45.4, 98.9, 26.6, 53.1];
>> [ave,stdev] = stat(values)
ave =  47.340
stdev =  29.412

Possibly you did nto save the code as a function, or did not save it on the MATLAB Search Path or current directory. But as you did not explain how and where you saved it, we can only guess.

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/functions.html

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/search-path.html

[Vedeesh Bali]

I saved it as a file, but the output did not change :(

[Steven Lord]

You saved it as a file, but I'm guessing that file was not named stat.m. See the first Note on this documentation page. If you define a function stat inside a file slow.m then you will need to call the function using the name slow not the name stat.

Answer 1

[Priysha LNU]

Here is an excerpt from "create functions in files" documentation :

Often, you store a function in its own file. In that case, the best practice is to use the same name for the function and the file (in this example, fact.m), since MATLAB® associates the program with the file name. Save the file either in the current folder or in a folder on the MATLAB search path.

Saving the code to a file named "stat.m" might help you resolve this error.

DISCLAIMER: These are my own views and in no way depict those of MathWorks.