Workspace, Search Path, and File Operations

MATLAB Release Notes

Workspace, Search Path, and File Operations

See the complete Workspace, Search Path, and File Operations documentation online.

MATLAB Workspace and Workspace Browser

If you are using the Help browser, watch the new Workspace Browser video demo for an overview of the major functionality.
The Workspace browser now includes a Value column where you can see the content of the variable, or a description of the content. Click the value in the Value column to edit the content.
Click a variable name (in the Name column) to rename the variable. To create a copy of a variable, right-click and select Duplicate from the context menu.
Click the plot icon in the Workspace browser toolbar to plot the selected variable. Choose from other applicable plots by clicking the arrow next to the plot button. The function used to create the plot appears in the Command Window so you can use it again later.
Click the print button in the Workspace browser toolbar to print a view of the current workspace.
MAT-files are now compressed by default. For details on compressing MAT-files, see Compressed Data Support in MAT-Files.
Use the new function genvarname to construct a valid MATLAB variable name from a given candidate, where the candidate can be a string or a cell array of strings. For details, type help genvarname.
The new function datatipinfo(x) displays information about the variable, x.

Array Editor

If you are using the Help browser, watch the new Array Editor video demo for an overview of the major functionality.
You can now view and edit the content of cell arrays and structures in the Array Editor. For example, double-click a structure in the Workspace browser to open it in the Array Editor. In the Array Editor, double-click an element of the structure to open it as its own Array Editor document. You can then view and edit the contents.
You can select contiguous elements in an array, and then click the plot button on the Array Editor toolbar to plot only the selected elements. Click the arrow next to the plot button in the toolbar to select from other applicable plots.
You can print an array from the Array Editor. Select File -> Print to create a print of the current variable.
You can open arrays having up to 2^19 (524288) elements, which is eight times more than the previous limit, 2^16 (65536).
You can save a variable to a MAT-file from the Array Editor. Select File -> Save and complete the resulting Save dialog box.

Search Path

MATLAB now considers built-in files to be the same as other M-files on the search path. For more information, see File Operations, Workspace, and Path in Upgrading from an Earlier Release.
There is a new function, savepath, that saves the current search path to a file, pathdef.m, so that you can use the same search path in future sessions. Note that this function replaces path2rc.
There is a new function, restoredefaultpath, that helps redefine the search path file, pathdef.m, to include only files installed with MathWorks products. Use this function to recover from problems with the path. If that fails, run

restoredefaultpath; matlabrc.

The genpath function now includes empty directories in the generated path string.
The which function now displays the pathname for built-in functions, as well as for overloaded functions when only the overloaded functions are available.

File Operations

Finding Files and Content Within Files. From any desktop tool, select Edit -> Find Files. Complete the resulting dialog box to find specified files or files containing specified text in the directories you choose. Double-click a file in the results listing to open it. For details, see Finding Files and Content Within Files in the online documentation.

Preventing Accidental File Deletion. Use the new recycle function or the General preference for the delete function to send files you remove using the delete function to the Recycle Bin on Windows, to the Trash Can on Macintosh, or to a /tmp/MATLAB_Files_timestamp directory on UNIX systems. You can then recover any accidentally deleted files from these locations.

Current Directory Browser Enhancements.

If you are using the Help browser, watch the new Current Directory Browser video demo for an overview of the major functionality.
You can access source control system features from the Current Directory browser. Right-click a file or directory, and from the context menu, select Source Control and then select the source control function you want to use.
To open a file using an external application, select Open Outside MATLAB from the context menu. For example, if you select myfile.doc, Open Outside MATLAB opens myfile.doc in Microsoft Word, assuming you have the .doc file association configured to launch Word.
Using the Current Directory browser, you can now copy and paste directories, including the entries contents.
As is true for all desktop tools, you can drag columns in the Current Directory browser to reorder them, or click a column head to sort by that column. For an item that does not fit in its column, you can hover over it to see the full name of the item.
The current directory field appears in the Current Directory browser only when the Current Directory browser is undocked from the MATLAB desktop. When the Current Directory browser is docked in the MATLAB desktop, use the current directory text field in the desktop toolbar.

Visual Directory and Directory Reports in the Current Directory Browser. There are new tools accessible from the Current Directory browser for tuning and managing M-files. For details, see Visual Directory Tool in the Current Directory Browser and Directory Reports in the Current Directory Browser.

Help for Using MATLAB Editing and Debugging M-Files