query argument block options

Is there a way to automatically query the optional arguments of an argument block?

For example, something like:

myStruct = argumentInfo('myfunc.m');

(and myStruct has fields 'name','type','size','validationCode','defaultValue')

[Walter Roberson]

I do not think any such thing existed.

If it did exist, it would need to also accept a function handle instead of a file name, to deal with the fact that there can be multiple functions in a file. Or I suppose it could return a struct array of struct array, with the outer layer being information about the function name.

Answer 1

[Sameer]

Hi @Steve Van Hooser

You can use "inputParser" class to define and query optional arguments of a function

www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/inputparser.html

Here's an example:

function Ex_Func(varargin)

    p = inputParser;
    
    % Define optional arguments with default values and validation functions
    addOptional(p, 'name', 'defaultName', @ischar);
    addOptional(p, 'type', 'defaultType', @ischar);
    addOptional(p, 'size', [1, 1], @isnumeric);
    addOptional(p, 'validationCode', 'defaultValidation', @ischar);
    addOptional(p, 'defaultValue', 'defaultValue', @ischar);
    
    % Parse the input arguments
    parse(p, varargin{:});
    
    % Retrieve the parsed arguments
    myStruct = struct();
    myStruct.name = p.Results.name;
    myStruct.type = p.Results.type;
    myStruct.size = p.Results.size;
    myStruct.validationCode = p.Results.validationCode;
    myStruct.defaultValue = p.Results.defaultValue;
    
    disp(myStruct);
end

Hope this helps!