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Summary:
Dynamically accessing variable names can negatively impact the readability of your code and can cause it to run slower by preventing MATLAB from optimizing it as well as it could if you used alternate techniques. The most common alternative is to use simple and efficient indexing.
Explanation:
Sometimes beginners (and some self-taught professors) think it would be a good idea to dynamically create or access variable names, the variables are often named something like these:
  • matrix1, matrix2, matrix3, matrix4, ...
  • test_20kmh, test_50kmh, test_80kmh, ...
  • nameA, nameB, nameC, nameD,...
Good reasons why dynamic variable names should be avoided:
There are much better alternatives to accessing dynamic variable names:
Note that avoiding eval (and assignin, etc.) is not some esoteric MATLAB restriction, it also applies to many other programming languages as well:
MATLAB Documentation:
If you are not interested in reading the answers below then at least read MATLAB's own documentation on this topic Alternatives to the eval Function, which states "A frequent use of the eval function is to create sets of variables such as A1, A2, ..., An, but this approach does not use the array processing power of MATLAB and is not recommended. The preferred method is to store related data in a single array." Data in a single array can be accessed very efficiently using indexing.
Note that all of these problems and disadvantages also apply to functions load (without an output variable), assignin, evalin, and evalc, and the MATLAB documentation explicitly recommends to "Avoid functions such as eval, evalc, evalin, and feval(fname)".
The official MATLAB blogs explain why eval should be avoided, the better alternatives to eval, and clearly recommend against magically creating variables. Using eval comes out at position number one on this list of Top 10 MATLAB Code Practices That Make Me Cry. Experienced MATLAB users recommend avoiding using eval for trivial code, and have written extensively on this topic.
Gregory
Gregory
Last activity am 13 Jun. 2017

Matlab webread (or urlread) Cody

Something seems to either have changed with webread/urlread behavior with R2016a or the Cody site has changed its authentication after it's September 2016 upgrade. Now, when ever I make a call using either webread (with weboptions) urlread using "My Cody" url, I get the html that corresponds to an unauthenticated user.
Ex: https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/cody/players/1261697-gregory/solved
I've tried passing credentials using weboption and also cached the credentials using the built in Matlab browser - neither helped in seeing the authenticated version of this page.
Any help in understanding where the problem/solution lies would be helpful. Easily reproduced by running...
URL = 'https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/cody/players/1261697-gregory/solved';
[Contents Status] = urlread(URL);
Compare this to the source pulled down when authenticated with Chrome (for example, search for the work "two"). FYI: this has worked for a couple of years up until now...
O45
O45
Last activity am 23 Okt. 2018

Best solution to cody problems

Hi, I am uploading the answers to cody problems. Although most of answers are correct but my size is bigger than the best answer. How can I view the best answer?
The community is very helpful, yet I feel really powerless that I cannot find the appropriate way to code, nor find the problems with the codes I have written. I have read numerous books on MATLAB, mostly related with science and engineering applications. Any advice to improve would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
James
James
Last activity am 11 Jun. 2015

Issue with Cody Challenge Badges?

Apologies for putting this question here, but I'm not sure there's a specific forum for Cody-related questions.

I recently noticed that a new badge for "Magic Numbers Master" had been created and awarded. When I entered my profile to check that out, I noticed that I had received that badge, but lost the badge for "Cody Challenge Master." I thought that maybe my solution had been messed up because of a change in one of the test suites that my solution missed, as this has happened a number of times on other problems. According to the text underneath the badge icon, I've still solved all 96 of the questions in the Cody Challenge. All of the problems listed as part of that challenge are still marked as "Solved." Has anyone else run into this issue?

I created a solution for Cody Problem 1745 (Get me!) that is very simple and works perfectly on my computer; but in Cody, it results in the error:
Error: Undefined function or variable 'me'.
The test code is:
get = me();
y = rand(1,12345);
!rm now.m
!rm assert.m
assert(get == now)
My solution is:
classdef me
methods
function tf = eq(obj,~)
tf = true;
end
end
end
Why doesn't Cody accept this?
(P. S.) And why doesn't it accept function definitions like
function justDoIt
(which are appropriate for some problems and accepted by MATLAB) but requires at least one input and output?
if i want write fewer codes in cody,what should I pay attention to?
Can anyone explain how Cody calculates the size of a program?
I read the help, but couldn't understand. :(
Why cody does not allow 'eval', 'evalc','feval' etc functions in the solutions? What is alternative to these functions?
e.g. I need to use:
if f='3*x'
x=0:10;
y=eval(vectorise(f))
so that values of y can be calculated as 3.*x
bt cody does not let us to use functions like eval
What is the alternative?
I have been stuck in the Cody question: Problem 31. Remove all the words that end with "ain"
http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/cody/problems/31-remove-all-the-words-that-end-with-ain
for the whole afternoon. My codes below passed the first two tests but failed in the third one, because my codes cannot separate "" and ain. Anyone could help?
function s2 = remAin(s1)
s1_cell = strread(s1, '%s');
[s1_cell{find(not(cellfun('isempty', regexp(s1_cell, '\w*ain\>'))) == 1)}] = deal(' ');
s2 = strjoin(s1_cell');
s2 = strrep(s2, sprintf('%c%c%c', 32,32,32), sprintf('%c%c', 32,32));
if s2(end) == ' ' && s2(end-1) == ' '
s2(end) = [];
end
end
Salam,
While I was playing with Cody, I found one interesting question that asked to write MATLAB function to create times-table (can be found here: http://bit.ly/1cWZGGM ). The question itself was easy, but I had problems to figure out how could someone solve this problem with compact code of size 10 !!
After I've checked the leading answer, it seems to be written in Chinese not in MATLAB :)
Here is the answer:
function m = timestables(n)
regexp '' '(?@A=repmat([1:n]'',1,n);m=A.*A'';)'
end
Could anyone translate this to me so that I can use it in my future attempts ? :P
Regards.
In a previous Q & A, Jan Simon pointed to Cody: Sum 1:2^n. The current leading solution to that problem has node-count (or more simply, "length") 10. Apparently, 10 is the minimal length (per the official length-function on File Exchange) of any function taking input & generating output:
function y = test_cody_solution(x)
y = x;
end
Per Cody instruction examples, additional computation within a function definition increases the solution length. For example, both of the following functions have length 12:
function y = test_cody_solution(x)
y = [x];
end
function y = test_cody_solution(x)
y = x+1;
end
My question is: what kinds of ninja-style coding idioms even exist in MATLAB which actually perform definite computation but at the same time do not increase the node-count above 10? I'm not able to imagine what could be going on in order for someone to solve a given non-trivial Cody puzzle in length 10 or 11? IOW, without respect to any particular Cody problem, could someone please give an example of a non-trivial function which somehow comes in at or just above the absolute lower bound? Any explanation of the magic would be appreciated as well.
Thanks, Brad
Jan
Jan
Last activity am 9 Aug. 2013

Magic strings and numbers in Matlab

Some of Matlab's toolbox functions are affected by magic strings or magic numbers, which are strings or numbers with a deeper meaning besides the normal value. Both are considered as bad programming patters, because they provoke confusions, when the magic keys appear with the normal meaning by accident. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-pattern
Example 1:
clear('myVariable')
clear('variables')
While the 1st clears the variable myVariable, the later clears all variables. Here 'variables' has a meta-meaning. The problem appears, when 'variables' is an existing variable:
a = 1;
variables = 2;
clear('variables')
disp(a) % >> 1
Only variables is cleared, which cannot be understood directly when its definition is 1000 lines before.
Example 2:
uicontrol('String', 'default')
This creates a button with the empty string '' instead of the expected 'default', because this is the magic string to invoke the default value get(0, 'DefaultUIControlString'). The same concerns properties of other graphic objects also, e.g. the 'name' property of figure or the string of uimenu. There is a workaround which allows the user to display 'default': Simply use '\default'. Unfortunately this is doubled magic, because in consequence it is impossible to display the string '\default'. Obviously a bad idea.
Example 3:
Graphic handles are doubles (although gobject of the new R2013a seems, like this is subject to changes? [EDITED: Yes, it changed with HG2 in R2014a]). But then a handle can be confused with data:
a = axes; % e.g. 0.0048828125
plot(a, 2, '+')
But you cannot draw the point [0.0048828125, 2] by this way, because the 1st input is considered as handle of the parent. Here all possible values of handles are magic. Collisions are very unlikely, but there is no way to avoid them reliably - as long as handles have the type double.
Question:
Which functions are concerned by magic values? What are the pitfalls and workarounds?
function b = most_change(a)
a(:,1)=a(:,1)*0.25;
a(:,2)=a(:,2)*0.1;
a(:,3)=a(:,3)*0.05;
a(:,4)=a(:,4)*0.01;
d=sum(a,2);
c=max(d);
for i=1:length(d)
if d(i)==c
b=i;
end
end
i got wa please explain idont understand
Matt Fig
Matt Fig
Last activity am 23 Feb. 2023

Share your favorite snippet or utility

I am wondering what others use for those little short-cuts or niceties in MATLAB. I have in mind something you wrote or something somebody else wrote or an underused MW function.
Here are my two favorites.
This is a simple script I use. Here is the entire contents of CLC.m (yes, it is capitalized):
clear all,close all,clc
Very simple, but I use it all the time. Here is another one I use so often that I forget not every machine has it (though every machine should, IMO):
whats
Here is an underused MW function that I occasionally employ when working on someone else's machine. The usual response is, "Wait, what did you just do?"
home
What are some of yours?
Given a tic tac toe board:
1 represents X
0 represents empty.
-1 represents O
It is X's move. If there is an immediate win possibility, choose a square for an immediate win. Otherwise return 0.
Return absolute index of the square of choice. If multiple square are valid, return them in order.
Example:
Input a = [ 1 0 1
-1 1 0
0 -1 -1]
Output wins is [4 8]
Can anyone explain it in detail?
I'm confused with the sentence I marked ans bold style.
Thanks a lot~~~
I've written a valid answer to the last Cody problem, but it is not even close to the best answer. I have no idea how they made this short answer. To unlock it I need to solve another Cody question, but there are none left... :(
Anybody know how to unlock the last question?
Hi,
i'm "solving" number 30 cody's problem.
I think to solve that whit sortrows function.
If I have a z vector:
j = sqrt(-1);
z = [-4 6 3+4*j 1+j 0];
my funtion is:
function z = complexSort(z)
z(2,:)=sqrt(real(z).^2+imag(z).^2);
z=sortrows(z',-2);
z=z(:,1);
end
End it return the result
z =
6.0000 6.0000
3.0000 - 4.0000i 5.0000
-4.0000 4.0000
1.0000 - 1.0000i 1.4142
0 0
The question is: why imagine part in input is positive e sortrows trasform it in negative?
best regards
Marco
Adam Kaas
Adam Kaas
Last activity am 6 Jun. 2012

Coolest things MATLAB can do

As I'm becoming more and more familiar with MATLAB, I'm starting to fall in love with it. I was wondering what are the coolest things that you all know MATLAB can do? As for me so far, the auto-code generation into another language is the coolest thing.