How to elegantly ignore some return values of a MATLAB function
Is it possible to get the 'nth' return value from a function without having to create dummy variables for all n-1
return values before it?
Let's say, I have the following function in MATLAB:
function [a,b,c,d] = func()
a = 1;
b = 2;
c = 3;
d = 4;
Now suppose, I'm only interested in the third return value. This can be accomplished by creating one dummy variable:
[dummy, dummy, variableThatIWillUse, dummy] = func;
clear dummy;
But I think this is kind of ugly. I would think that you might be able to do something like one of the following things, but you can't:
[_, _, variableThatIWillUse, _] = func;
[, , variableThatIWillUse, ] = func;
variableThatIWillUse = func(3);
variableThatIWillUse = func()(3);
Are there any elegant ways to do this that do work?
So far, the best solution is to simply use the variableThatIWillUse
as a dummy variable. This saves me from having to create a real dummy variable that pollutes the work-space (or that I would need to clear). In short: the solution is to use the variableThatIWillUse
for every return value up until the interesting one. Return values after can simply be ignored:
[variableThatIWillUse, variableThatIWillUse, variableThatIWillUse] = func;
I still think this is very ugly code.