What does the code below means

ind = strfind(method,'##$PVM_NMovieFrames=');

ind = ind+20; 
buff='';
n=1;
while method(ind)~= '$'

      buff(n) = method(ind);
      ind = ind+1;
      n = n+1;
  end

Question 1: why would i need a buff=' '

Question 2:why would the condition needs to have ~

[Adam]

Can't you tell us what the purpose of the code is? Whether you need either of the things you query in your two questions is not at all obvious without understanding what the intent of the code is.

buff = ''

looks superfluous, but you can easily find out by removing it. If you get an error then it is clearly needed as initialisation..

~ means NOT so the loop is presumably supposed to end when method(ind) is a '$'.

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

You need the initialization because method(ind) might be equal to '$' immediately.

Answer 2

[Li LEE]

hi adam, thank you for your answer. I was trying to understand how the code works.This code was written by someone else. the code is suppose to read a parameter named PVM_NMovieFrames. By you answering my question regarding what is ~, i figured it out. the buff=' ', the code was trying to create an empty array or string.

thanks