How to run m-file from another m-file by input string

I have tried this code below trying to immediately run an m-file that was just created in another m-file :

savename = input('name :    ');

f=fopen(savename,'w');

%%%writes in the created m-file

fclose(f);

run(save_name);

The above code neither produce any error or runs the script. Any comments? thanks.

[Geoff Hayes]

I was able to do something similar but had to change your code slightly

 % use 's' to indicate that the result is a string and not an 
 % expression that should not be evaluated
 savename = input('name :    ', 's');

 % open the file
 f=fopen(savename,'w');

 % write a line to print out a statement
 fprintf(f,'fprintf(''this is a test\\n'');');

 % close the file
 fclose(f);

 % use savename rather than save_name
 run(save name);

And this worked fine with the output being

 this is a test

and the input being test.m.

What are you writing to your m file? If you run this script from the Command Window, does it work or does it only fail when you try to call it from the other m file (as above)?

[Arief Anbiya]

Thanks @Geoff, it worked.. I just realized that my code actually worked (without the typo). I write variables in the created m-file, so I was looking for those variables to appear in the workspace, then i realized Matlab doesnt do that.

Answer 1

[Alfonso Nieto-Castanon]

try this:

 ...
 fclose(f);
 rehash;
 run(save_name);

also make sure that your variable save_name does not include the extension .m, while the file that you create does include it. So that would be something like:

 savename = 'test';
 f = fopen([savename '.m'],'wt');
 ...
 fclose(f);
 rehash;
 run(savename);

[Geoff Hayes]

Why can't the script name have the extension .m? The example at run allows for it.

[Alfonso Nieto-Castanon]

Interesting (and thanks for pointing this out)... Entering a script name with the extension .m (and without a filepath) produces an error on an old version of Matlab (R2008b), but it seems to work just fine on a more recent version (R2013a)...

Answer 2

[David Sanchez]

I do that some times just by doing this:

another_script = input('script name: ','s'); % and type the name of your other script
run(another_script);

with no need of either fopen or fclose

[Geoff Hayes]

Arief's code is creating a script from within another, and so needs the fopen and fclose.