Find Number of Function Arguments
This example shows how to determine how many input or output arguments your function receives
using nargin and nargout.
Input Arguments
Create a function in a file named addme.m that accepts up to two inputs. Identify the number of
inputs with nargin.
function c = addme(a,b)
switch nargin
case 2
c = a + b;
case 1
c = a + a;
otherwise
c = 0;
end
Call addme with one, two, or zero input arguments.
addme(42)
ans =
84
addme(2,4000)
ans =
4002
addme
ans =
0
Output Arguments
Create a new function in a file named addme2.m that can return one or two outputs (a result and its
absolute value). Identify the number of requested outputs with nargout.
function [result,absResult] = addme2(a,b)
switch nargin
case 2
result = a + b;
case 1
result = a + a;
otherwise
result = 0;
end
if nargout > 1
absResult = abs(result);
end
Call addme2 with one or two output arguments.
21 Function Arguments
21-2