How do you retrieve the selected text in MATLAB?

Question

MATLAB has several selection-sensitive capabilities. For example, if you select some text and press F9, it evaluates your selection. (Unless you\'ve remapped your keyboard

Answer 1

In case you want to use something like this but with text highlighted in the editor rather than in the command window.

I use the following code in order to be able to quickly check the nnz() of a variable, although you can change the code in the nested try-catch to whatever you need.

Lastly, I created a shortcut with this code in the top right of Matlab, which I access quickly by pressing Alt-1.

try
    activeEditor = matlab.desktop.editor.getActive;
    currentSelection = activeEditor.SelectedText;

    try
        eval(sprintf('val = nnz(%s);',currentSelection))
        disp(sprintf('>> nnz(%s) = %s',currentSelection,num2str(val)))
    catch ex
        disp(ex.message)
    end
catch ex
    disp(ex.message)
end