MATLAB Programming Fundamentals - MathWorks

Ignore Function Inputs

This example shows how to ignore inputs in your function definition using the tilde (~)

operator.

Use this operator when your function must accept a predefined set of inputs, but your

function does not use all of the inputs. Common applications include defining callback

functions, as shown here, or deriving a class from a superclass.

Define a callback for a push button in a file named colorButton.m that does not use the

eventdata input. Ignore the input with a tilde.

function colorButton

figure;

uicontrol('Style','pushbutton','String','Click me','Callback',@btnCallback)

function btnCallback(h,~)

set(h,'BackgroundColor',rand(3,1))

The function declaration for btnCallback is essentially the same as

function btnCallback(h,eventdata)

However, using the tilde prevents the addition of eventdata to the function workspace

and makes it clearer that the function does not use eventdata.

You can ignore any number of function inputs, in any position in the argument list.

Separate consecutive tildes with a comma, such as

myfunction(myinput,~,~)

Ignore Function Inputs