ellipsis - Line continuation - MATLAB (original) (raw)

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Syntax

Description

The ellipsis symbol (...) continues the current command on the next line. If three or more periods occur before the end of a line, then MATLAB® ignores the rest of the line and continues to the next line. This behavior effectively makes a comment out of anything on the current line that follows the three periods.

MATLAB interprets the ellipsis as a space character. Therefore, multi-line commands must be valid as a single line with the ellipsis replaced by a space character.

example

Examples

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Continue a function call on the next line.

vname = "Var1"; value = 10; sprintf(["The current value " + ... "of %s is %d"],vname,value)

ans = "The current value of Var1 is 10"

Break a character vector over multiple lines and concatenate the lines together.

S = ['If three or more periods occur before the ' ... 'end of a line, then the rest of that line is ' ... 'ignored and MATLAB continues to the next line'];

To comment out one line in a multi-line command, use ... at the beginning of the line to ensure that the command remains complete. If you use % to comment out a line, the command produces an error.

y = 1 + ... 2 + ... % 3 + ... 4

However, this code runs properly because the third line does not produce a gap in the command.

y = 1 + ... 2 + ... ... 3 + 4

Version History

Introduced before R2006a