Variable called angle (name conflict)

I got a .mat file containing some data, some of which are single value variables. One of these are called 'angle' which conflicts with the Matlab function of the same name. This doesn't seem to be a problem if I just use it in the command prompt or a non-function m-file. But if i try to use it in a function, i get the following error:

Error in makeImage (line 49)
    delta_theta   = angle;

I can't change the variable in the .mat-file, since i have around 100 of them, and no it wasn't me who made the cock up :-). Any suggestions?

Answer 1

[Teja Muppirala]

I can think of two immediate ways to deal with this. But, as you've pointed out, it is of course best not to mix variable and function names.

1. You can load your MAT-file into a structure like this

function dosomething()

matdata = load('myfile.mat');
angle = matdata.angle

OR

2. You can declare "angle" as a variable right at the beginning, so that MATLAB knows it's not a function.

function dosomething()

angle = [];
load myfile

[Jakob Sørensen]

Thank you very much. Ironically, it was one of the university proffessors who made variable name.

[Jan]

The name of the variable is intuitive. I suggest to use the struct instead, because for "matdata.angle" the source of the variable is clear and there are no conflicts. LOAD without catching the output causes unexpected bugs too often.