Release 11 New Features      

MATLAB Language Enhancements

Links to Command Descriptions
Clicking on the command name in the following tables displays the documentation for that command. Use your browser's Back button to return to this document.

Support for try/catch

MATLAB 5.2 added functions to support try/catch error handling.

Function
 Description
catch
 Begin catch block.
try
 Begin try block.

Warning Messages

The new lastwarn function, depending how it is called, returns either a string containing the last warning message issued by MATLAB or an empty string matrix until the next warning is encountered, or sets the last warning message to a specified string.

Setting the Recursion Limit

You can now set the limit for recursion so that you will receive an error instead of being forced out of MATLAB when the recursion limit is reached. The default recursion limit is 500. To change the recursion limit, change the following line

in your matlabrc.m file in the toolbox/local directory.

New Mathematical Functions

MATLAB 5.2 provided these new mathematical functions.

Function
 Description
cholinc
 Sparse Incomplete Cholesky and Cholesky-Infinity factorizations.
cholupdate
 Rank 1 update to Cholesky factorization.
ifftshift
 Inverse fast Fourier transform shift.
ode23t
 Solve moderately stiff problems for a solution without numerical damping.
ode23tb
 Solve stiff systems using crude error tolerances. May also be used if there is a mass matrix.
qrupdate
 Rank 1 update to QR factorization.

New String Comparison Functions

Function
 Description
strcmpi
 Compare strings ignoring case.
strncmpi
 Compare first n characters of strings ignoring case.
MATLAB 5.2 provided two additional string comparison functions.

M-File Locking

You can now lock (and unlock) an M-file so that clear does not clear that M-file from memory.

Function
 Description
mislocked
 True if M-file cannot be cleared.
mlock
 Prevent M-file clearing.
munlock
 Allow M-file clearing.

Persistent Variables

A variable may be defined as persistent (with the keyword persistent) so that it does not change value from one call to another. Persistent variables may be used within a function only. Persistent variables remain in memory until the M-file is cleared or changed. persistent is exactly like global, except that the variable name is not in the global workspace, and the value is reset if the M-file is changed or cleared.

Three MATLAB functions support the use of persistent variables (see "M-File Locking" above):

File and Directory Handling

You can copy a file and make a directory from within MATLAB.

Function
 Description
copyfile
 Copy file.
mkdir
 Make directory.

Enhancement to load

MATLAB 5.2 added a new option to the load function.

returns the contents of a MAT-file as a structure instead of directly loading the file into the workspace. The field names in S match the names of the variables that were retrieved. When the file is ASCII, S will be a double precision array.

Cell Array of Strings

You can now use a cell array of strings with the following functions:

Enhancement to strjust

The strjust function now does right, left, and center justification.

Change in clc and home Behavior

The clc and home commands now both clear the command window. After issuing either of these commands, it is no longer possible to scroll back to see previous contents of the command window.

Additional Functions Changed in MATLAB 5.2

In addition to the above functions, the MATLAB 5.2 version of the following functions changed in minor ways, generally to reflect the addition of the new functions described above (e.g., clear does not clear if mlock is called first).


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