Is there a one-step command that identifies the name of the caller workspace

Obviously, I could use dbstack, but it seems there should be a simple command that simply prints out the name of the caller workspace.

Thanks, Leo

Answer 1

[SK]

I think there is no option but write one yourself and put it in your library.

function name = wkname(wk)

    if (length(dbstack) == 1)
      name = 'base';
    else
      i = find(wk == filesep, 1, 'last');
      if isempty(i)
        i = 0;
      end
      name = wk(i+1:end);
    end

end

This would work in the regular Matlab environment where all calls start from the command line. You could call from anywhere as:

wkname(mfilename);

[Leo Simon]

Thanks SK for this quick response. Not sure what you want for the argument mfilename? Could you explain what you had in mind please? I was thinking of a call that simply returned the name of the caller workspace, whatever it is, so there should be no need for an argument?

Presumably, your code could be modified to do that if no argument was supplied. But I'm curious as to what the argument would be used for...

[Image Analyst]

mfilename is an automatic/built-in variable that always exists - it's the name of the m-file being run, but not necessarily of the function being run. If wkname() is in a different m-file, then it would probably not know the mfilename of the caller and would have to be passed in.

[SK]

As per the Matlab docs, mfilename is the "file name of the most recently invoked function". So once you are in wkname(), the name of the caller is lost and it has to be passed in.

Also as Image Analyst implies, if you use wkname(mfilename) inside a local function in an m-file, it would return the file name and not the name of the local function.