creating a coundown alarm everytime a function have been asked

Hello, basically what I want to do is that i want to create a simple function like this:

function [] = alarm()

print("5 seconds to wake up")

end

and everytime i call the function without giving it any initial parameter i want the countdown to decrement so the first time i call it: alarm() return: 5 seconds to wake up

second time: alarm() return 4 seconds to wake up

etc... to reach 0

how can i do that ?

Answer 1

[dpb]

function [] = alarm(varargin)
% alarm -- display countdown left
% Optional arguments
%   'init' -- reset counter

persistent SECS

% handle optional arguments, then quit
option=[varargin{:}];
if strncmpi(option,'init',3), SECS=5; return, end

disp(compose("%d seconds to wake up",SECS))
SECS=SECS-1;
end

Above doesn't have niceties of additional options to reset to a new/different time nor does it handle underllow gracefully...but the general idea. Altho I fail to see how can be of any real value as described...