What is your favourite MATLAB/Octave programming trick? [closed]

Answer 1

I like using function handles for lots of reasons. For one, they are the closest thing I've found in MATLAB to pointers, so you can create reference-like behavior for objects. There are a few neat (and simpler) things you can do with them, too. For example, replacing a switch statement:

switch number,
  case 1,
    outargs = fcn1(inargs);
  case 2,
    outargs = fcn2(inargs);
  ...
end
%
%can be turned into
%
fcnArray = {@fcn1, @fcn2, ...};
outargs = fcnArray{number}(inargs);

I just think little things like that are cool.