Keywords (GNU Octave (version 11.2.0))

### F.1 Keywords ¶

The function `iskeyword` can be used to check whether an identifier is reserved by Octave.

`tf =` iskeyword `(name)` ¶
`keyword_list =` iskeyword `()` ¶

  Return true if name is an Octave keyword.

  If name is omitted, return a list of keywords.

  See also: isvarname, exist.

#### Keyword Categories ¶

Variable Declaration | Function Definition | Control Statements | Iterating Structures | Classdef Structures | Execution Environment

#### Alphabetical Keyword Listing ¶

The identifiers below are keywords, and may not be used as variable or function names.

__FILE__ | __LINE__ | arguments | break | case | catch | classdef | continue | do | else | elseif | end | end_try_catch | end_unwind_protect | endarguments | endclassdef | endenumeration | endevents | endfor | endfunction | endif | endmethods | endparfor | endproperties | endswitch | endwhile | enumeration | events | for | function | global | if | methods | otherwise | parfor | persistent | properties | return | switch | try | until | unwind_protect | unwind_protect_cleanup | while

#### Variable Declaration ¶

global `var` ¶

  Declare variables to have global scope.

      global x;
      if (isempty (x))
        x = 1;
      endif

  See also: persistent.

persistent `var` ¶

  Declare variables as persistent.

  A variable that has been declared persistent within a function will retain its contents in memory between subsequent calls to the same function. The difference between persistent variables and global variables is that persistent variables are local in scope to a particular function and are not visible elsewhere.

  See also: global.

#### Function Definition ¶

function `[output1, …] = function_name (input1, …)` ¶
function `function_name (input1, …)` ¶
function `output = function_name` ¶

  Begin a function body with name `function_name`, with outputs as results, and with inputs as parameters.

  The function can later be invoked in Octave using the syntax

      [output1, output2, ...] = function_name (input1, input2, ...)

  See also: return.

endfunction ¶

  Terminate a function definition.

  See also: function.

end ¶

  The termination of a code block or the last element of an array.

  The keyword `end` is used to terminate blocks of code begun with `for`, `parfor`, `if`, `do`, `while`, `function`, `switch`, `try`, or `unwind_protect`.

  When using classdef (object-oriented) programming, the keyword terminates blocks of code begun with `classdef`, `properties`, `methods`, `events`, or `enumeration`.

  As an index of an array, the magic index `"end"` refers to the last valid entry in an indexing operation.

  Examples:

      x = [ 1 2 3; 4 5 6 ];
      x(1,end)
       ⇒  3
      x(end,1)
       ⇒  4
      x(end,end)
       ⇒  6

  Programming Notes:

  1. The `end` keyword cannot be used within `subsref`, `subsasgn`, or `substruct` for manual indexing operations.
  2. For custom classes, enabling use of `end` in indexing expressions requires writing an overloaded function such as:

         function last_index = end (obj, end_dim, ndim_obj)
           if (end_dim == ndim_obj)
             last_index = prod (size (obj)(end_dim:ndim_obj));
           else
             last_index = size (obj, end_dim);
           endif
         endfunction

     For more information, see Object Oriented Programming.

  See also: for, parfor, if, do, while, function, switch, try, unwind_protect.

return ¶

  Return execution control immediately from a function or script to the calling code.

  `return` is used to stop executing code and exit an m-file immediately rather than continuing until the end of the function or script is reached.

  If the function or script was invoked directly, rather than from calling code in an m-file, then Octave returns to the command line.

  See also: function.

arguments ¶

  Begin a function arguments block.

  Warning: Function arguments validation blocks are not yet implemented in Octave. Use of the keyword `arguments` will cause the parser to emit a warning, and may throw an error depending on the contents of the code in the block.

endarguments ¶

  Terminate a function arguments block.

  Warning: Function arguments validation blocks are not yet implemented in Octave. Use of the keyword `arguments` will cause the parser to emit a warning, and may throw an error depending on the contents of the code in the block.

  See also: arguments.

#### Control Statements ¶

if `(cond) … endif` ¶
if `(cond) … else … endif` ¶
if `(cond) … elseif (cond) … endif` ¶
if `(cond) … elseif (cond) … else … endif` ¶

  Begin an if block.

  The conditional cond is true if it is not empty and if all values are nonzero.

      x = 1;
      if (x == 1)
        disp ("one");
      elseif (x == 2)
        disp ("two");
      else
        disp ("not one or two");
      endif

  See also: switch.

else ¶

  Alternate action for an if block.

  See `if` for an example.

  See also: if.

elseif `(cond)` ¶

  Alternate conditional test for an if block.

  The conditional cond is true if it is not empty and if all values are nonzero.

  See `if` for an example.

  See also: if.

endif ¶

  Terminate an if block.

  See `if` for an example.

  See also: if.

switch `statement` ¶

  Begin a switch block.

      yesno = "yes";

      switch (yesno)
        case {"Yes" "yes" "YES" "y" "Y"}
          value = 1;
        case {"No" "no" "NO" "n" "N"}
          value = 0;
        otherwise
          error ("invalid value");
      endswitch

  See also: if, case, otherwise.

case `value` ¶
case `{value1, …}` ¶

  A case statement in a switch block.

  The code associated with a `case` statement is executed if one of the tests below succeeds given a `switch` argument statement and a value of type:

  - number : `statement == value`
  - character array or string : `strcmp (statement, value)`
  - object : `eq (statement, value)`
    (programmer must write overloaded `eq` function which performs ‘`==`’)
  - cell array : One of the values in the cell array must match statement using the criteria above.

  Programming Notes: Octave cases are exclusive and do not fall-through as do C-language cases. A `switch` statement must have at least one `case`.

  See `switch` for an example.

  See also: switch.

otherwise ¶

  The default statement in a `switch` block which is executed when no other `case` statements match the input.

  See also: switch, case.

endswitch ¶

  Terminate a switch block.

  See `switch` for an example.

  See also: switch.

try ¶

  Begin a try-catch block.

  If an error occurs within a `try` block, then the code in the `catch` block will be run. Execution will proceed after the `catch` block (though it is often recommended to use the `lasterr` function to re-throw the error after cleanup is completed).

  See also: catch, unwind_protect.

catch ¶
catch `exception_var` ¶

  Begin the cleanup part of a try-catch block.

  If exception_var is specified then a variable of that name will defined in the scope of the `catch` block. The variable is a scalar struct with fields `identifier`, `message`, and `stack` which describes the error that was caught.

  See also: try.

end_try_catch ¶

  Terminate a try-catch block.

  See also: try, catch.

unwind_protect ¶

  Begin an unwind_protect block.

  If an error occurs within the first part of an `unwind_protect` block the commands within the `unwind_protect_cleanup` block are executed before the error is thrown. If an error is not thrown, then the `unwind_protect_cleanup` block is still executed. In other words, the `unwind_protect_cleanup` code is guaranteed to execute regardless of success or failure in the `unwind_protect` block.

  See also: unwind_protect_cleanup, try.

unwind_protect_cleanup ¶

  Begin the cleanup section of an `unwind_protect` block.

  See also: unwind_protect.

end_unwind_protect ¶

  Terminate an unwind_protect block.

  See also: unwind_protect.

#### Iterating Structures ¶

for `i = range` ¶

  Begin a for loop.

      for i = 1:10
        i
      endfor

  See also: parfor, do, while.

endfor ¶

  Terminate a for loop.

  See `for` for an example.

  See also: for.

while `(cond)` ¶

  Begin a while loop.

  The conditional cond is true if it is not empty and if all values are nonzero.

      i = 0;
      while (i < 10)
        i++
      endwhile

  See also: do, endwhile, for, until.

endwhile ¶

  Terminate a while loop.

  See `while` for an example.

  See also: do, while.

do ¶

  Begin a do-until loop.

  This differs from a `while` loop in that the body of the loop is executed at least once.

      i = 0;
      do
        i++
      until (i == 10)

  See also: for, until, while.

until `(cond)` ¶

  End a do-until loop.

  The conditional cond is true if it is not empty and if all values are nonzero.

  See `do` for an example.

  See also: do.

parfor `i = range` ¶
parfor `(i = range, maxproc)` ¶

  Begin a for loop that may execute in parallel.

  A `parfor` loop has the same syntax as a `for` loop. If your Octave session has a parallel processing pool enabled, the iterations of the `parfor` loop will be executed in parallel across the pool’s workers. Otherwise, `parfor` will behave exactly as `for`.

  When operating in parallel mode, a `parfor` loop’s iterations are not guaranteed to occur sequentially, and there are additional restrictions about the data access operations you can do inside the loop body.

  Warning: parallel processing pools are currently unimplemented in Octave; `parfor` currently behaves exactly as a normal `for` loop.

      parfor i = 1:10
        i
      endparfor

  See also: for, do, while.

endparfor ¶

  Terminate a parfor loop.

  See `parfor` for an example.

  See also: parfor.

break ¶

  Exit the innermost enclosing `do`, `while`, or `for` loop.

  See also: continue, do, while, for, parfor.

continue ¶

  Jump to the end of the innermost enclosing `do`, `while`, or `for` loop.

  See also: break, do, while, for, parfor.

#### Classdef Structures ¶

classdef ¶

  Begin a classdef block.

  See also: properties, methods, events, enumeration.

endclassdef ¶

  Terminate a classdef definition.

  See also: classdef.

properties ¶

  Mark the beginning of a block of properties in a classdef definition.

  Note that the function `"properties"` is not a keyword, but rather an ordinary function that lists the properties of a classdef class or object.

  See also: endproperties.

endproperties ¶

  Terminate a properties block in a classdef definition.

  See also: properties.

methods ¶

  Mark the beginning of a block of methods in a classdef definition.

  Note that the function `"methods"` is not a keyword, but rather an ordinary function that lists the methods of a class or object.

  See also: endmethods.

endmethods ¶

  Terminate a methods block in a classdef definition.

  See also: methods.

events ¶

  Begin an events block in a classdef definition.

endevents ¶

  Terminate an events block in a classdef definition.

  See also: events.

enumeration ¶

  Begin an enumeration block in a classdef definition.

endenumeration ¶

  Terminate an enumeration block in a classdef definition.

  See also: enumeration.

#### Execution Environment ¶

__FILE__ ¶

  When the lexer recognizes the `"__FILE__"` keyword it returns a character array containing the full name and path of the file that is being executed. `"__FILE__"` will return `"stdin"` if called from the command line.

  See also: __LINE__.

__LINE__ ¶

  When the lexer recognizes the `"__LINE__"` keyword it returns a numeric value containing the current input line number of the function or file being executed. `"__LINE__"` will return `1` if called from the command line.

  See also: __FILE__.