NARGOUT Number of Output Arguments

Usage

The special variable nargout is defined inside of all functions. It indicates how many return values were requested from the function when it was called. FreeMat allows for fewer return values to be requested from a function than were declared, and nargout can be used to determine exactly what subset of the functions outputs are required. There is no syntax for the use of nargout - it is automatically defined inside the function body.

Example

Here is a function that is declared to return five values, and that simply prints the value of nargout each time it is called.

     nargouttest.m
function [a1,a2,a3,a4,a5] = nargouttest
  printf('nargout = %d\n',nargout);
  a1 = 1; a2 = 2; a3 = 3; a4 = 4; a5 = 5;

--> a1 = nargouttest
nargout = 1

a1 = 

 1 

--> [a1,a2] = nargouttest
nargout = 2
a1 = 

 1 

a2 = 

 2 

--> [a1,a2,a3] = nargouttest
nargout = 3
a1 = 

 1 

a2 = 

 2 

a3 = 

 3 

--> [a1,a2,a3,a4,a5] = nargouttest
nargout = 5
a1 = 

 1 

a2 = 

 2 

a3 = 

 3 

a4 = 

 4 

a5 = 

 5