Get computer name/hostname

It provides the computer name where running. Useful for customizing scripts depending on the machine

Description

GETCOMPUTERNAME is a very simple but useful function to get your computer name, i.e. the hostname.

Example:

> mycomputer = getComputerName();

• Acknowledgements: This submission has inspired the following:; getUserName
• MATLAB release: MATLAB 7.1.0 (R14SP3)

[Marcelo Perlin]

Manuel, you can't publish something as trivial as this:

[ret, name] = system('hostname');

if ret ~= 0,
   if ispc
      name = getenv('COMPUTERNAME');
   else
      name = getenv('HOSTNAME');
   end
end
name = lower(name);

I don't see how you can improve this because it is very trivial.

My suggestion is to delete it...

[Manuel Marin]

Thanks for your comment but, from my point of view, if I have to rewrite 10 lines of code hundreds of times, independently of the difficulty, it worths to pack them into a function.

[Jos x@y.z]

This (indeed trivial) function will produce a misleading error ('Undefined function or variable "name".') if "ret", for whatever reason, equals zero. If ret is always non-zero, why check? And why convert it to lower case?

The help could be improved, by adding a H1, SEE ALSO lines.

[m m]

If ret ~= 0, it means that command 'hostname' has not been found in the system. So, an alternative way, based on enviromental variables, is tried. On the other hand, 'name' always is set to a value, either by system() or by getenv.

[AHMET ANIL D?NDAR]

THANKS FOR THE CODE

[Alex Leung]

Absolutely no problem at all!

[Cesare]

I think it was usefull. I didn't know how to do it, now I do.

[Richard Crozier]

Marcelo and Jos, I for one find this a really useful function which saved my looking up the obscure (to me) functions used within it. This has saved me probably at least an hour of searching through help. So basically you can get lost.

Manuel do not delete the file, it's helped me, thank you!

[MathMoose]

Thanks. I had to strip a newline character from the end of the name string returned (on Windows 7), but this function was useful.

I added to the end of the file:

% remove trailing newline or null characters
name = deblank(name);

[Ken]

For future reference (with regards to MathMoose's suggestion), consider using strtrim where applicable instead of deblank.

[Matthew Crema]

Helpful.

Maybe useful to put this at the end
hostname = hostname(hostname ~= 10);

to remove the newline character at the end of the string (on the one computer I've tested it on).

[Peter Raeth]

Many thanks to Manuel Marin for posting this information.

As an aside, things like this are only "trivial" to those who already know the answer.They are critical to those who are searching for answers.

A spark should never be put out. Rather, it should be fanned. Posters should be encouraged in their attempts to serve the community.

[Noah]

 

[MathMoose]

@Ken Why is strtrim better? Are you having problems with whitespace at the beginning of your hostname string?

[Felipe G. Nievinski]

 

[Abhishek]