Set default values

A very simple function that initialises a missing or empty value in the caller function.
1.2K Downloads
Updated 23 Mar 2010

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Editor's Note: This file was selected as MATLAB Central Pick of the Week

In order to set default values for variables, I find the start of my functions littered with

if nargin < 1 || isempty(x)
x = 1;
end

if nargin < 2 || isempty(y)
y = 3;
end
etc.

This is pretty ugly, so I've created a wrapper to prettify it. Honestly, it's so simple that I nearly didn't upload this, but it does make your functions cleaner. Now the above is transformed to

SetDefaultValue(1, 'x', 1);
SetDefaultValue(2, 'y', 3);

Note that there are other ways to set defaults. See
http://blogs.mathworks.com/loren/2009/05/05/nice-way-to-set-function-defaults/

Cite As

Richie Cotton (2024). Set default values (https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/27056-set-default-values), MATLAB Central File Exchange. Retrieved .

MATLAB Release Compatibility
Created with R2009b
Compatible with any release
Platform Compatibility
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Version Published Release Notes
1.0.0.0