Support Variable Number of Outputs - MATLAB & Simulink (original) (raw)
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This example shows how to define a function that returns a variable number of output arguments using varargout. Output varargout is a cell array that contains the function outputs, where each output is in its own cell.
Create a function in a file named magicfill.m that assigns a magic square to each requested output.
function varargout = magicfill nOutputs = nargout; varargout = cell(1,nOutputs);
for k = 1:nOutputs varargout{k} = magic(k); end
Indexing with curly braces {} updates the contents of a cell.
Call magicfill and request three outputs.
[first,second,third] = magicfill
first = 1
second = 1 3 4 2
third = 8 1 6 3 5 7 4 9 2
MATLAB® assigns values to the outputs according to their order in the varargout array. For example, first == varargout{1}.
You can use varargout alone in an output argument list, or at the end of the list of outputs, such as
function [x,y,varargout] = myfunction(a,b)
In this case, varargout{1} corresponds to the third output that the function returns, and nargout returns length(varargout) + 2.