<!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>Commands (GNU Octave (version 5.1.0))</title> <meta name="description" content="Commands (GNU Octave (version 5.1.0))"> <meta name="keywords" content="Commands (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="Organization-of-Functions.html#Organization-of-Functions" rel="next" title="Organization of Functions"> <link href="Inline-Functions.html#Inline-Functions" rel="prev" title="Inline Functions"> <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="Commands"></a> <div class="header"> <p> Next: <a href="Organization-of-Functions.html#Organization-of-Functions" accesskey="n" rel="next">Organization of Functions</a>, Previous: <a href="Function-Handles-Anonymous-Functions-Inline-Functions.html#Function-Handles-Anonymous-Functions-Inline-Functions" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Function Handles Anonymous Functions Inline 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="Commands-1"></a> <h3 class="section">11.12 Commands</h3> <p>Commands are a special class of functions that only accept string input arguments. A command can be called as an ordinary function, but it can also be called without the parentheses. For example, </p> <div class="example"> <pre class="example">my_command hello world </pre></div> <p>is equivalent to </p> <div class="example"> <pre class="example">my_command ("hello", "world") </pre></div> <p>The general form of a command call is </p> <div class="example"> <pre class="example"><var>cmdname</var> <var>arg1</var> <var>arg2</var> … </pre></div> <p>which translates directly to </p> <div class="example"> <pre class="example"><var>cmdname</var> ("<var>arg1</var>", "<var>arg2</var>", …) </pre></div> <p>Any regular function can be used as a command if it accepts string input arguments. For example: </p> <div class="example"> <pre class="example">toupper lower_case_arg ⇒ ans = LOWER_CASE_ARG </pre></div> <p>One difficulty of commands occurs when one of the string input arguments is stored in a variable. Because Octave can’t tell the difference between a variable name and an ordinary string, it is not possible to pass a variable as input to a command. In such a situation a command must be called as a function. For example: </p> <div class="example"> <pre class="example">strvar = "hello world"; toupper strvar ⇒ ans = STRVAR toupper (strvar) ⇒ ans = HELLO WORLD </pre></div> </body> </html>