MATLAB Function Reference

quit - Terminate the MATLAB^® program

GUI Alternatives

As an alternative to the quit function, use the Close box or select File > Exit MATLAB in the MATLAB desktop.

Syntax

quit quit cancel quit force

Description

quit displays a confirmation dialog box if the confirm upon quitting preference is selected, and if confirmed or if the confirmation preference is not selected, terminates MATLAB after running finish.m, if finish.m exists. The workspace is not automatically saved by quit. To save the workspace or perform other actions when quitting, create a finish.m file to perform those actions. For example, you can display a custom dialog box to confirm quitting using a finish.m file—see the following examples for details. If an error occurs while finish.m is running, quit is canceled so that you can correct your finish.m file without losing your workspace.

quit cancel is for use in finish.m and cancels quitting. It has no effect anywhere else.

quit force bypasses finish.m and terminates MATLAB. Use this to override finish.m, for example, if an errant finish.m will not let you quit.

Remarks

When using Handle Graphics^® in finish.m, use uiwait, waitfor, or drawnow so that figures are visible. See the reference pages for these functions for more information.

If you want MATLAB to display the following confirmation dialog box after running quit, select File > Preferences > General > Confirmation Dialogs. Then select the check box for Confirm before exiting MATLAB, and click OK.

Examples

Two sample finish.m files are included with MATLAB. Use them to help you create your own finish.m, or rename one of the files to finish.m to use it.

finishsav.m—Saves the workspace to a MAT-file when MATLAB quits.

finishdlg.m—Displays a dialog allowing you to cancel quitting; it uses quit cancel and contains the following code:

button = questdlg('Ready to quit?', ...
        'Exit Dialog','Yes','No','No');
switch button
            case 'Yes',
              disp('Exiting MATLAB');
              %Save variables to matlab.mat
              save
            case 'No',
              quit cancel;
end