<!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>Function Precedence (GNU Octave (version 5.1.0))</title> <meta name="description" content="Function Precedence (GNU Octave (version 5.1.0))"> <meta name="keywords" content="Function Precedence (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="Function-Files.html#Function-Files" rel="up" title="Function Files"> <link href="Script-Files.html#Script-Files" rel="next" title="Script Files"> <link href="Function-Locking.html#Function-Locking" rel="prev" title="Function Locking"> <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="Function-Precedence"></a> <div class="header"> <p> Previous: <a href="Function-Locking.html#Function-Locking" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Function Locking</a>, Up: <a href="Function-Files.html#Function-Files" accesskey="u" rel="up">Function Files</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="Function-Precedence-1"></a> <h4 class="subsection">11.9.7 Function Precedence</h4> <p>Given the numerous different ways that Octave can define a function, it is possible and even likely that multiple versions of a function, might be defined within a particular scope. The precedence of which function will be used within a particular scope is given by </p> <ol> <li> Subfunction A subfunction with the required function name in the given scope. </li><li> Private function A function defined within a private directory of the directory which contains the current function. </li><li> Class constructor A function that constructs a user class as defined in chapter <a href="Object-Oriented-Programming.html#Object-Oriented-Programming">Object Oriented Programming</a>. </li><li> Class method An overloaded function of a class as in chapter <a href="Object-Oriented-Programming.html#Object-Oriented-Programming">Object Oriented Programming</a>. </li><li> Command-line Function A function that has been defined on the command-line. </li><li> Autoload function A function that is marked as autoloaded with See <a href="Overloading-and-Autoloading.html#XREFautoload">autoload</a>. </li><li> A Function on the Path A function that can be found on the users load-path. There can also be Oct-file, mex-file or m-file versions of this function and the precedence between these versions are in that order. </li><li> Built-in function A function that is a part of core Octave such as <code>numel</code>, <code>size</code>, etc. </li></ol> </body> </html>