<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> <html> <!-- Created by GNU Texinfo 6.5, http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/ --> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> <title>Introduction to Function and Script Files (GNU Octave (version 5.1.0))</title> <meta name="description" content="Introduction to Function and Script Files (GNU Octave (version 5.1.0))"> <meta name="keywords" content="Introduction to Function and Script Files (GNU Octave (version 5.1.0))"> <meta name="resource-type" content="document"> <meta name="distribution" content="global"> <meta name="Generator" content="makeinfo"> <link href="index.html#Top" rel="start" title="Top"> <link href="Concept-Index.html#Concept-Index" rel="index" title="Concept Index"> <link href="index.html#SEC_Contents" rel="contents" title="Table of Contents"> <link href="Functions-and-Scripts.html#Functions-and-Scripts" rel="up" title="Functions and Scripts"> <link href="Defining-Functions.html#Defining-Functions" rel="next" title="Defining Functions"> <link href="Functions-and-Scripts.html#Functions-and-Scripts" rel="prev" title="Functions and Scripts"> <style type="text/css"> <!-- a.summary-letter {text-decoration: none} blockquote.indentedblock {margin-right: 0em} blockquote.smallindentedblock {margin-right: 0em; font-size: smaller} blockquote.smallquotation {font-size: smaller} div.display {margin-left: 3.2em} div.example {margin-left: 3.2em} div.lisp {margin-left: 3.2em} div.smalldisplay {margin-left: 3.2em} div.smallexample {margin-left: 3.2em} div.smalllisp {margin-left: 3.2em} kbd {font-style: oblique} pre.display {font-family: inherit} pre.format {font-family: inherit} pre.menu-comment {font-family: serif} pre.menu-preformatted {font-family: serif} pre.smalldisplay {font-family: inherit; font-size: smaller} pre.smallexample {font-size: smaller} pre.smallformat {font-family: inherit; font-size: smaller} pre.smalllisp {font-size: smaller} span.nolinebreak {white-space: nowrap} span.roman {font-family: initial; font-weight: normal} span.sansserif {font-family: sans-serif; font-weight: normal} ul.no-bullet {list-style: none} --> </style> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="octave.css"> </head> <body lang="en"> <a name="Introduction-to-Function-and-Script-Files"></a> <div class="header"> <p> Next: <a href="Defining-Functions.html#Defining-Functions" accesskey="n" rel="next">Defining Functions</a>, Up: <a href="Functions-and-Scripts.html#Functions-and-Scripts" accesskey="u" rel="up">Functions and Scripts</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Concept-Index.html#Concept-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p> </div> <hr> <a name="Introduction-to-Function-and-Script-Files-1"></a> <h3 class="section">11.1 Introduction to Function and Script Files</h3> <p>There are seven different things covered in this section. </p><ol> <li> Typing in a function at the command prompt. </li><li> Storing a group of commands in a file — called a script file. </li><li> Storing a function in a file—called a function file. </li><li> Subfunctions in function files. </li><li> Multiple functions in one script file. </li><li> Private functions. </li><li> Nested functions. </li></ol> <p>Both function files and script files end with an extension of .m, for <small>MATLAB</small> compatibility. If you want more than one independent functions in a file, it must be a script file (see <a href="Script-Files.html#Script-Files">Script Files</a>), and to use these functions you must execute the script file before you can use the functions that are in the script file. </p> </body> </html>