Suppress function output

Question

I have a short function which uses textscan to read data into a variable.

My problem is that I always get this:

>>function('function.txt')

    ans = 

        {10x1 cell}    {10x1 cell}    {10x1 cell}    [10x1 double]

Is there any way to suppress this, apart from adding a semi colon to the end of the line I use to call the function? I'd like to be able to suppress it without adding the semi colon. I don't want to display anything at all when running this function, I just want to load my file.

Have re-read the question properly now :-) What you want can be done using `evalc` (I think). See [suppress-output](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9518146/suppress-output) and [suppressing-a-functions-command-window-output](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3029636/suppressing-a-functions-command-window-output) for near duplicates of this question (I'm flagging this as a possible duplicate). — Colin T Bowers, Jan 07 '13 at 05:21

Richard Dong · Answer 1 · 2013-01-07T04:56:07.123

You can suppress the output by remove output arguments (or return values) of the function. OR Try use Variable Number of Outputs, see Support Variable Number of Outputs

function varargout = foo
    nOutputs = nargout;
    varargout = cell(1,nOutputs);
    for k = 1:nOutputs;
        varargout{k} = k;
    end
end

You type >>foo and get nothing. You type >>a=foo and get >>a=1. You type >>[a,b]=foo and get >>a=1 >>b=2.

You can thus suppress output by NOT providing any output arguments.

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 07 '13 at 13:35

The simplest way to avoid having output printed out is to not assign the first output argument if no output argument was requested:

function [aOut,b,c] = doSomething

%# create a,b,c normally
a = 1;
b = 4;
c = 3;

%# only assign aOut if any output is requested
if nargout > 0
   aOut = a;
end

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited Feb 05 '18 at 18:09

1

You could try using the diary functionality. It redirects all input and output from the command prompt to a file of your choice. If you only turn it on during a specific function, no input should be captured. I admit it is a bit of a clumsy solution as the diary on/off state is global to matlab, but it might be ok in your case.

Read more about it here: Diary matlab help

edited Feb 05 '18 at 18:09

Adriaan

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answered Jan 07 '13 at 08:55

KlausCPH

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Suppress function output

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