Re: Question re function in .m file

[Miquel Cabanas]

hi,

On Tue, Dec 14, 2004 at 08:15:49PM -0800, John B. Thoo wrote:
> 
> octave:1> quaderror
> error: `x' undefined near line 2 column 11
> [...]

as mentioned in a previous reply, since quaderror is a function,
you are expected to pass all required arguments to it. That is,
if you define a function (eg `quaderror()' ) with an argument
(eg `x') you are expected to call it with *one* argument, for
instance,

> octave:1> quaderror (pi / 2)
> ans = 0.25000

that works ok because you are using it right

> Fewer errors when I type "quaderror (x)" in Octave, but still
> errors, yet can still evaluate the function:
> 
> octave:2> quaderror (x)
> error: `x' undefined near line 2 column 12
> error: evaluating argument list element number 1
> octave:2> quaderror (pi / 2)
> ans = 0.25000

octave is for numerical calculations [1]. Since you have not
assigned a value to `x' before passing it to quaderror(), octave
warns you that `x' is not defined and that quaderror() can't do
anything with it. Try assigning a numerical value to x before calling
quaderror and you will see that it works,

octave:1> x = pi/2;
octave:2> quaderror(x)
ans = 0.25000

BTW, don't get fooled with `pi'. It is not a symbol, it's a
builtin numerical value,

octave:3> pi
pi = 3.1416

> That seems weird to me (that I can evaluate the function even
> with errors showing), and I am no less confused.

* there are no errors in your function, that's why it works; but
* you are making mistakes when calling it, and those are causing
  the error messages displayed by octave.

On the other side, the octave behaviour is perfectly coherent:

1. you define functions with all required arguments,
2. you must pass functions the required arguments,
3. since octave is meant for numerical calculation [1] your
   arguments must be numbers or numerical variables.

[1] actually, there's a package interfacing to Ginac, a symbolic
    computation program. Visit octave-forge website for further
    information.


Miquel


-- 
Miquel E Cabanas ------------------------------------------------------
SeRMN, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (address@hidden)
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