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Quick Reference Guide for Debugging Commands

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This guide is a short summary describing the commands presented in the Debugging from the MATLAB Command Prompt sections of Technical Note 1207, "Techniques for Debugging MATLAB M-Files"

Setting, Clearing, and Querying breakpoints

CLEAR	Clears breakpoints and variables in current workspace
DBCLEAR	Clears breakpoints; commonly used with ALL argument to clear all   breakpoints in all files
DBCONT	Exits debug mode; do not end execution of program
DBQUIT	Exits debug mode and execution of program
DBSTATUS	Lists currently set breakpoints
DBSTOP	Allows you to programmatically set breakpoints and stop when certain   exception conditions are met
KEYBOARD	Forces MATLAB to stop executing the program and enter debug mode;   you can think of this as a breakpoint which cannot be cleared
RETURN	Exits debug mode; do not end execution of program

Moving from Workspace to Workspace

  

DBDOWN	Moves down one level on the workspace stack
DBSTACK	Displays the workspace stack
DBUP	Moves up one level on the workspace stack

Executing your code step by DBSTEP

  

DBSTEP

Execute one or more lines of code, then return to debug mode prompt

DISPlaying status messages periodically

  

DISP	Displays messages you specify; useful for determining if a section of code   executes and if it performs correctly

TRY your code and CATCH any errors

 

TRY CATCH END

Executes a section of code between TRY and CATCH and if any errors   occur, captures the error and executes the code between CATCH and END   instead of exiting the program

Viewing and RETHROWing the LASTERROR

LASTERR LASTERROR	Returns the last error message and error identifier (if it exists)
LASTWARN	Returns the last warning message and warning identifier (if it exists)
RETHROW	Reissues error captured in a TRY/CATCH block using LASTERROR;

WHICH function are you?

 

WHICH

Determines if something is a variable or function and where it is located