Error: Attempt to execute script as function/no return for "which" command.

This is a very common problem, but thus far I have not been able to fix my error using the Matlab troubleshooting solutions. I'm kind of new to matlab so forgive me for being green if it's something obvious I just don't see. The script file I'm trying to modify is called waxsimport.m:

waxsexposures = waxsimport(waxs_exposures_2015.par, 1, inf)
%%Initialize variables.
delimiter = ' ';
if nargin<=2
  startRow = 1;
  endRow = inf;
end
%%Read columns of data as strings:
formatSpec = '%s%s%s%s%s ... %s%s%[^\n\r]';
%%Open the text file.
fileID = fopen('waxs_exposures_2015.par', '/r/');
end

(that's not the entire thing) returns:

Attempt to execute SCRIPT waxsimport as a function: C:\Users\Owner\Documents\...\waxsimport.m

Error in waxsimport (line 1) waxsexposures = waxsimport('waxs_exposures_2015.par', 1, inf)

I read through a few q&a's and I have deleted all other files involving the phrase "waxsimport" from the path, so it's not looking for the wrong script.

Also, I tried the command

>> which -all ‹waxsimport›
'‹waxsimport›' not found.
>> which -all ‹waxsimport.m›
'‹waxsimport.m›' not found.

So I double checked and waxsimport.m was in the path. The goal is to import data from a .par into a matrix in the workspace.

[Stephen23]

There seems to be some confusion between scripts and functions:

• scripts do not have inputs or outputs.
• functions must start with the word function.
• they cannot be mixed together in one file.

These tutorials are a good way to learn basic MATLAB usage:

http://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/getting-started-with-matlab.html

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

No, the file needs to start with

function waxsexposures = waxsimport(waxs_exposures_2015, startRow, endRow)

but you need to invoke it from outside the function, and the invocation in that other routine would look like

waxsexposures = waxsimport('waxs_exposures_2015.par', 1, inf)

Or is your intent to provide "default" values if the user did not specify any inputs? If that was what you were trying to do then you would use a different form: you would use

function waxsexposures = waxsimport(waxs_exposures_2015, startRow, endRow)
  if nargin < 1
    waxs_exposures_2015 = 'waxs_exposures_2015.par';
  end
  if nargin < 2
    startRow = 1;
  end
  if nargin < 3
    endRow = inf;
  end

    delimiter = ' ';

    %%Read columns of data as strings:
    formatSpec = '%s%s%s%s%s ... %s%s%[^\n\r]';
    %%Open the text file.
    fileID = fopen(waxs_exposures_2015, 'rt');       %changed

    ...
    fclose(fileID);

[Steven Lord]

And if you want to call that function using the name waxsimport it must be contained in a file named waxsimport.m. [If the function name and the file name are different, MATLAB knows the function by the file name.]