Re: varargout{:} = func() ?

[Ben Abbott]

On Feb 23, 2010, at 9:47 PM, FW wrote:

>> v =
>>     []
>>     []
>>     []
>> 
>>>> v{:} = rand(1,2)
>> v =    [1x2 double]
>> 
>> My impression is that this isn't very new, but as I've always found some of 
>> how Matlab handles cells to be counter intuitive (if not misleading), so I'm 
>> not in the habit of using this notation.
> 
> Do you have a way of returning a cell array of results that packages
> up the variable outputs?  That is the reasonable problem this notation
> solves, even if the syntax is not so reasonable.

Beyond a single output ...

        v = {rand(1,2)}

I expected the attempts below to work, but they did not.

octave:5> function foobar(n)
> end
octave:6> function varargout = foobar(n)
> for m = 1:n
> varargout{m} = m;
> end
> end
octave:7> v = {foobar(3)}
v =

{
  [1,1] =  1
}

octave:8> function [a,b,c] = foobar()
> a = 1;
> b = 2;
> c = 3;
> end
octave:9> v = {foobar()}
v =

{
  [1,1] =  1
}

I should mention that I'm presently unable to run the developers sources, so 
I'm running 3.2.x.

Ben