assignin (MATLAB Function Reference)

Assign a value to a workspace variable

Syntax

assignin(ws,'var',val)

Description

assignin(ws,'var',val) assigns the value val to the variable var in the workspace ws. var is created if it doesn't exist. ws can have a value of 'base' or 'caller' to denote the MATLAB base workspace or the workspace of the caller function.

The assignin function is particularly useful for these tasks:

Exporting data from a function to the MATLAB workspace
Within a function, changing the value of a variable that is defined in the workspace of the caller function (such as a variable in the function argument list)

Remarks

The MATLAB base workspace is the workspace that is seen from the MATLAB command line (when not in the debugger). The caller workspace is the workspace of the function that called the M-file. Note the base and caller workspaces are equivalent in the context of an M-file that is invoked from the MATLAB command line.

Examples

This example creates a dialog box for the image display function, prompting a user for an image name and a colormap name. The assignin function is used to export the user-entered values to the MATLAB workspace variables imfile and cmap.

prompt = {'Enter image name:','Enter colormap name:'};
title = 'Image display - assignin example';
lines = 1;
def = {'my_image','hsv'};
answer = inputdlg(prompt,title,lines,def);
assignin('base','imfile',answer{1});
assignin('base','cmap',answer{2});

See Also

evalin

asin, asinh atan, atanh