Running a Full Factorial DoE using user generated inputs

I have written a program in which the user loads a given definition file and then runs that definition file through a series of functions to produce a desired result.

Added to this, I have made a GUI that allows the user to select certain parameters of that definition file and define a minimum value, a maximum value, and a number of steps between the two. Once the user finishes defining those selected parameters, the GUI runs the original program through each parameter range individually.

What I am trying to do is enable this GUI to run all the defined parameters simultaneously, essentially following a full factorial approach. I am having a hard time figuring out how to essentially make a self generating for loop that adds an index for each selected parameter. Anyone have any suggestions?

Answer 1

[Image Analyst]

You mean like a nested for loop:

for p1 = p1Start : p1Step : p1End
    for p2 = p2Start : p2Step : p2End
        for p3 = p3Start : p3Step : p3End
             out = RunExperiment(p1,p2,p3);  % Do your code (call your function(s))....
        end
    end
end

This will do every specified combination of the 3 parameters.

[Andrew Dodd]

That's what I'm trying to do, but want to be able to run between 1-45 different parameters. And it could be any value in between the two.

[Image Analyst]

If you have 45 different parameters, and say each one takes on 10 values, then you'd have 10^45 different permutations. That would take a billion billion billion billion billion runs of your functions. So assuming your code runs in about a second, you could get through all of your experiments in about 7*10^38 years or about a 100 billion billion billion times the age of the universe. Are you prepared to wait that long?

For more reasonable numbers, like varying 2 or 3 parameters, you could also use meshgrid() instead of for loops. I don't know of any other way to handle varying the number of parameters you want to vary except to use all 45 in a gigantic nest and just have the ones you don't want to vary have the same starting and stopping values.