Calling a Function:

Here is an illustration of the call to this function in which value returned is stored in the default variable ans:

>> calcarea(4)

ans =

50.2655

Theoretically, calling the function is completed with the name of the file in which the function resides. In order to avoid the confusion, it is simple to give the function, similar name as the filename. In this illustration, the function name is calcarea and file name is calcarea.m. The outcome returned from this function can also stored in a variable in an assignment statement; the name could be similar as the name of the output argument in the function itself but that is not essential; for illustration, either of these assignments would be fine:

>> area = calcarea(5)

area =

78.5398

>> myarea = calcarea(6)

myarea =

113.0973

The value returned from calcarea function could also be printed by using either the disp or fprintf:

>> disp(calcarea(4))

50.2655

>> fprintf('The area is %.1f\n', calcarea(4))

The area is 50.

Note that the printing is not completed in the function itself; instead, the function returns the area and then the print statement can print or exhibit it.

By using help with the function shows the adjacent block of comments under the function header:

>> help calcarea

This function computes the area of a circle.