Passing path string as arguments in Matlab bash

Question

I want to pass string path to matlab function that I defined and have encountered problem. Here is the summary of what I tried:

I am trying to pass a string variable (in this case a path) declared in bash script to pass that variable to my own function. e.g.

var=/usr/local/
matlab -nosplash -nodesktop -nojvm -r "my_function($var)"

I got the error:

-bash: syntax error near unexpected token `('

To solve this, I tried:

var=/usr/local/
matlab -nosplash -nodesktop -nojvm -r "my_function\($var\)"

which is not something I find in standard references I find online. Regardless, the matlab runs, but I get the error:

Error: The input character is not valid in MATLAB statements or expressions.

To see if the variable is correctly converted, I tried echo:

var=/usr/local/
echo matlab -nosplash -nodesktop -nojvm -r "my_function\($var\)"

and realized that the output is:

matlab -nosplash -nodesktop -nojvm -r "my_function(/usr/local/)"

Since the variable is not string, the error made sense and I tried:

var=/usr/local/
var=$(printf "'%s'" $var)
echo matlab -nosplash -nodesktop -nojvm -r "my_function\($var\)"

which shows:

matlab -nosplash -nodesktop -nojvm -r "my_function('/usr/local/')"

So, I run the above code, but I still encounter the error:

Error: The input character is not valid in MATLAB statements or expressions.

To check if the function exists in path, I tried both pwd and exist() for file. e.g.

matlab -nodesktop -nosplash -nojvm -r "exist('my_function.m')"

The strange thing in this case is that I did not need  and that returned 2, meaning file exists in current path.

I am running out of ideas to try. So let me know how to solve this.

this is a a bash question not a matlab question

crowdedComputeeer
– crowdedComputeeer

2017-04-16 22:29:47 +00:00
Commented Apr 16, 2017 at 22:29 — crowdedComputeeer
– crowdedComputeeer, Commented Apr 16, 2017 at 22:29

arduinolover · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-16 16:13:55Z

1

So I created a function (myfunc) that takes path as an argument and prints list of files in that folder (ls).

$v='~/Documents'
$v2="myfunc('$v')"
$echo $v2
myfunc('~/Documents')
$matlab -nodisplay -nosplash -r $v2

It works. Could you please try this and share your output?

answered Apr 16, 2017 at 16:13

arduinolover

1762 silver badges5 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

Poelie · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-16 16:17:59Z

1

I can't reproduce your problem; I do not get the first bash error that you describe. Definitely one problem is missing ' ' around $var.

This works for me (granted that my_function is within the matlab path)

var=/usr/local/
matlab -nosplash -nodesktop -nojvm -r "my_function('$var')"

Alternatively try this without -r and like this instead:

#!/bin/bash
var=/usr/local/
path_to_my_function=/some/path  

matlab -nosplash -nodesktop -nojvm << EOF
    addpath('${path_to_my_function}')
    my_function('${var}')
EOF

answered Apr 16, 2017 at 16:17

Poelie

7136 silver badges19 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Passing path string as arguments in Matlab bash

2 Answers 2

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related