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who

List variables in workspace

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Syntax

who
who -file filename
who global
who ___ var1 ... varN
who ___ -regexp expr1 ... exprN
C = who(___)

Description

who lists in alphabetical order the names of all variables in the currently active workspace.

example

who -file filename lists the variable names in the specified MAT-file.

example

who global lists the variable names in the global workspace.

who ___ var1 ... varN lists only the specified variables. Use this syntax with any of the arguments in the previous syntaxes.

example

who ___ -regexp expr1 ... exprN lists only the variables that match the specified regular expressions.

example

C = who(___) stores the names of the variables in the cell array C.

Note

You must use the functional form of who when there is an output argument.

example

Examples

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Open Live Script

List the names of variables in the current workspace that start with the letter a.

who a*

Display the names of variables in the current workspace that end with ion.

who -regexp ion$
Open Live Script

List the names of variables stored in the sample MAT-file durer.mat. 

who -file durer.mat
Your variables are:

X        caption  map
Open Live Script

Store the list of variable names in durer.mat in cell array C. 

C = who('-file','durer.mat');

Display the contents of C. 

for k=1:length(C)
   disp(C{k})
end
X
caption
map

List all the variable names in the current workspace while paused in a nested function.

Create a file who_demo.m, that contains these statements.

function who_demo
date_time = datestr(now,'dd-mmm-yyyy');
 
date_time_array = strsplit(date_time,{'-',''});
get_date(date_time_array);

   function get_date(d)
      day = d{1};  %#ok<*NASGU>
      mon = d{2}; 
      year = d{3}; 
      keyboard
   end

end
K>>

Run who_demo. MATLAB® pauses at the line with the keyboard command.

who_demo

Call the who function. MATLAB displays the names of the variables in the nested get_date function and in all functions containing the nested function.

K>> who
Your variables are:

d                mon              date_time        
day              year             date_time_array

Input Arguments

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Variables to display, specified as one or more character vectors or string scalars. Use the '*' wildcard to match patterns. For example, who A* S* lists the names of all the variables in the workspace that start with A or S.

Regular expressions that define the variables to display, specified as one or more character vectors or string scalars. For example, who -regexp ^Mon ^Tues lists only the variable names in the workspace that begin with Mon or Tues. For more information about creating regular expressions, see Regular Expressions.

Name of MAT-file, specified as a character vector or string scalar. The file name can include the full, relative, or partial path. For example, who -file myFile.mat lists the names of all variables in the MAT-file named myFile.mat.

Data Types: char | string

Output Arguments

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List of variables, specified as a cell array of character vector.

Alternatives

  • To view the variables in the workspace, use the Workspace browser. To view the contents of MAT-files, use the Details Panel of the Current Folder browser. In MATLAB Online™, to view the contents of MAT-files, preview them by clicking the Preview button to the right of the MAT-file in the Files browser.

Version History

Introduced before R2006a

See Also

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