Demos in the Help Browser :: Help for Using MATLAB (Desktop Tools and Development Environment)

Desktop Tools and Development Environment

Demos in the Help Browser

MATLAB and related products include demos that you can access from the Help browser Demos pane. There are three basic kinds of demos:

Video tutorials: Play a movie file highlighting features, such as the demos for the MATLAB Desktop Tools and Development Environment.
Published M-files: HTML files that illustrate an example, step-by-step. An example is the MATLAB Programming Nested Functions demo.
M-file GUIs: Interactive tools for exploring a feature. An example is the MATLAB Graphics Visualizing Sound demo.

The M-file code for the demos (except video tutorials) is available for you to view and copy for use in your own applications.

See also Examples for each product in the Contents pane. These examples are similar to demos but are integrated in the documentation.

Using Demos

To access demos for the products you have installed,

Click the Demos tab in the Help Navigator.

You can also access demos from the Start button, using the demo function, or from the Help menu for some tools.

Click the + for a product area to list the products or categories that have demos. Then click + for a product or product category to list its demos. Demos are preceded by a demo icon .
Select a specific demo to use it. Information about the demo, including instructions for running it, appears in the display pane.
$Image of Demos panel showing key features. Click the Demos tab to display it. All installed products display. Expand a product\xd5 s listing to see all its demos, then select a demo. Use links in the display pane to view the demo code or to run the demo.$
You can

View the source code (M-file) for the demo--click the View code for link on the top left. For the example shown, it is nesteddemo. The M-file opens in the MATLAB Editor/Debugger.
Run the demo--click the link at the top right, Run this Demo, and then follow the instructions that appear. You can instead double-click the demo in the Help Navigator pane to run it.

When you run nesteddemo, the following M-file GUI demo appears, and you continue with the demo by clicking Start >>.

Notes About Demos

Some Help browser features do not apply to demos:

You cannot use the Search pane to look for words or code contained in the demos. You can use the Find Files tool in the Current Directory browser to search for code in demo M-files.
You cannot use Add to Favorites to bookmark demos.
The product filter does not apply to demos.

Function Alternative

To view the Demos in the Help browser, type demo in the Command Window. You can go directly to the demos for a specific product. For example

demo toolbox signal

opens the Demos listing for the Signal Processing Toolbox.

To run a demo, type the demo name at the command line. For example, type

vibes

to run a visualization demonstration showing an animated L-shaped membrane.

Running Published M-File Demos. To run published M-file demos from the command line, type playshow followed by the demo name. To determine if a demo is a published M-file type, view the H1 line for the demo M-file, that is, the first comment line. If it begins with two comment symbols (%%), it is a published M-file demo. For example, the first line in nesteddemo begins with two comment symbols:

%% Nested Function Examples

Therefore, type playshow nesteddemo to run the demo.

Adding Your Own Demos

You can add your own demos so they appear in the Demos pane. For details, see Adding Your Own Toolboxes to the Development Environment in the online documentation.

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