Command window text

Copies all text in the command window into a cell array of strings.

Description

This m-file allows you to export all text in the Command Window to a cell array of strings, each entry being a line of text from the window. The unparsed raw string is also available, if desired.

Operation is very simple - this file looks for the appropriate java object in the root window and gets text from it.

I was looking for a way to do this, particularly for error tracking in some software I maintain, and nobody seemed to have written up this method, so I present it here for you to use.

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to acknowledge the following in the creation of this submission:
FindJObj - find java handles of Matlab graphic objects

• MATLAB release: MATLAB 7.4 (R2007a)

[Jan Simon]

A short method without FINDJOBJ:
cmdDoc = com.mathworks.mde.cmdwin.cmdWinDocument.getInstance;
Str = cmdDoc.getText(1, cmdDoc.getLength);
CStr = regexp(Str, '\n', 'split');
The methods cmdWin.findStringInContent and cmdWin.findStringInContentBackwards can be helpful also to restrict the exported string.
Strange effects are possibe with the insertString method: You can modify former output!

[Hugh Nolan]

Thanks Jan - that didn't work exactly as written (version differences? I'm running R2007b) but gave me enough to work it out - updated and faster. Good work!

[Jan Simon]

Yes, the com commands depend on the Matlab version. The posted code runs on 2009a.