varargin - Variable-length input argument list

Examples

Variable Number of Function Inputs

Define a function in a file named varlist.m that accepts a variable number of inputs and displays the values of each input.

function varlist(varargin)
   fprintf('Number of arguments: %d\n',nargin);
   celldisp(varargin)

Call varlist with several inputs.

varlist(ones(3),'some text',pi)

Number of arguments: 3
 
varargin{1} =
     1     1     1
     1     1     1
     1     1     1

varargin{2} =
some text
 
varargin{3} =
    3.1416

varargin and Declared Inputs

Define a function in a file named varlist2.m that expects inputs X and Y, and accepts a variable number of additional inputs.

function varlist2(X,Y,varargin)
   fprintf('Total number of inputs = %d\n',nargin);

   nVarargs = length(varargin);
   fprintf('Inputs in varargin(%d):\n',nVarargs)
   for k = 1:nVarargs
      fprintf('   %d\n', varargin{k})
   end

Call varlist2 with more than two inputs.

varlist2(10,20,30,40,50)

Total number of inputs = 5
Inputs in varargin(3):
   30
   40
   50