Call a function that is not on the Matlab path WITHOUT ADDING THAT PATH

Question

I have been searching an entire afternoon and have found no solution to call in matlab a function by specifying its path and not adding its directory to the path.

Th

Answer 1

This is doable, but requires a bit of parsing, and a call to evalin.

I added (many years ago!) a function to the MATLAB Central File Exchange called externalFcn

http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/4361-externalfcn

that manages calls to off-path functions. For instance, I have a function called offpathFcn that simply returns a structure with a success message, and the value of an input. Storing that function off my MATLAB path, I can call it using:

externalfcn('out = C:\MFILES_OffPath\offpathFcn(''this is a test'')');

This returns:

out = 
    success: 1
    input: 'this is a test'

(Note that my implementation is limited, and improvable; you have to include an output with an equal sign for this to work. But it should show you how to achieve what you want.)

(MathWorks application engineer)