Passing functions as arguements in Matlab

Question

Hi,

I'm trying to write a function that is gets two arrays and the name of another function as arguements.

e.g.

main.m:

    x=[0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0];
    y=[0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0];

    func2(x,y,'func2eq')

func 2.m :
    function t =func2(x, y, z, 'func')   //"unexpected matlab expression" error message here    
    t= func(x,y,z);

func2eq.m:  
    function z= func2eq(x,y)

    z= x + sin(pi * x)* exp(y);

Matlab tells gives me the above error message. I've never passed a function name as an arguement before. Where am I going wrong?

Answer 1

You could try in func2.m

function t = func2(x,y,funcName) //no quotes around funcName
func = str2func(funcName)
t = func(x,y)

Answer 2

You could also use function handles rather than strings, like so:

main.m:

...
func2(x, y, @func2eq); % The "@" operator creates a "function handle"

This simplifies func2.m:

function t = func2(x, y, fcnHandle)
t = fcnHandle(x, y);

For more info, see the documentation on function handles