functions within functions?

[John W. Eaton]

On  1-Oct-1998, Ferdinand Schinagl <address@hidden> wrote:

| obviously it is not possible to define
| functions within functions directly, like:
| 
| function a(x)
|   function y = b(x)
|     y = sin(x)
|   end
| end
|
| However, as I found out, it can be done by
| evaluating strings (at runtime then, of course):
| 
| function a(x)
|   str = sprintf("function y = b(x); y = %e*sin(x); end;",x)
|   eval(str);
| end
| 
| or by means of writing into an external file
| which then contains all the necessary information:
| 
| function a(x)
|   handle = fopen("b.m","w");
|   fprintf(handle,"function y = b(x)\n  y = %e*sin(x);\nend",x);
|   fclose(handle);
| end

Defining functions within other functions is not intended to work.
The fact that you can (more or less) avoid this restriction by using
eval() or some other means is a misfeature.  I certainly wouldn't
depend on it.

Can you explain why you need to do something like this?  As far as I
can tell, your example does not show something that requires the
ability to define a function inside another function.

Thanks,

jwe