Development Environment

Getting Help in the Command Window - the help Function

To quickly view a brief description and syntax for a function in the Command Window, use the help function. For example, typing

help addpath

displays a description and syntax for the addpath function in the Command Window. This is called the M-file help. If you need more information than the help function provides, use the doc function.

Note    M-file help displayed in the Command Window uses all uppercase characters for the function and variable names to make them stand out from the rest of the text. When typing function names, however, use lowercase characters since MATLAB is case sensitive and function names are actually in lowercase. Some functions for interfacing to Java actually used mixed case and the M-file help accurately reflects that.

Overloaded Functions

When a function name is used in multiple products, it is said to be an overloaded function. The help function displays M-file help for the first function with that name found on the path, and lists the overloaded functions at the end. To get help for an overloaded function, specify the name of the directory containing the function you want help for, followed by the function name. For example, to get help for the set function in the Database Toolbox, type

help database/set

Creating M-File Help for Your Own M-Files

You can create M-file help for your own M-files and access it using the help command. See the help reference page for details.

Viewing Function Reference Pages - the doc Function

Other Methods for Getting Help