List of All Timezones

I have MATLAB R2018b. Sometimes, when I run my code, I get a list of all of the timezones without typing anything to get them. Sometimes I get them, and sometimes I do not. Does anybody else have this issue? What is going on?

Answer 1

[Adam Danz]

Somewhere in your code timezones is being called. Search all of your files for the word timezones to find which file is printing those outputs.

If you don't recall ever using this function, one possibility is that you used a variable name "timezones" but the variable is not defined so Matlab assumes you're calling that function without any inputs which would result in printing all of those timezones to the command window.

[Jasmine Ershov]

My current program is to make an AI to beat you at rock, paper, scissors. I did not use a variable name timezones. What is going on?

[Adam Danz]

I couldn't possibly diagnose it with the tiny bit of information provided.

• how often does this occur?
• if matlab sits untouched for 10 hours, would it happen or does it only happen when you're calling a function or when a GUI is running etc?
• Is there any possible user-behavior that triggers this (a very likely 'yes')
• Have you followed the advice in the answer to search for timezones in your matalb files?
• Does the format of the timezone output look like what is produced by the timezone function (see link in my answer)? If yes, all of my money is on my answer above. If no, could you show us what it looks like?
• Does restarting matlab fix it? Does it temporarily fix it?

Another possibility is that your AI has gained its own consciousness and thinks that timezones are part of the game. ;)

[Adam Danz]

I just briefly searched for previous cases where a list of timezones suddenly appear in the command window but didn't find anything. I see you're using r2018b (thanks for including the release in your question!). That release has been out for over a year now so unless it's a very deeply rooted bug that no one has ever reported, it's likely that something in your code is producing those results.

[Adam Danz]

If you haven't solved this yet, feel free to attach the file that you think is causing the error.

[Jasmine Ershov]

Sorry for the late response. I have been busy with work. The timezones thing does not always happen. It sometimes pops up when I run my code, and other times it does not. It happens at seemingly random times. The format of the weird timezone thing does look like what is produced by the timezones function. I have been looking through my code and cannot find any instances of the timezones function. Here is my current code that simply chooses randomly without any ai involved:

disp('Let''s play Rock, Paper Scissors!')
numRock = 0;
numPaper = 0;
numScissors = 0;
playAgain = true;
playerMoves = [numRock; numPaper; numScissors];
while (playAgain)
    rps = input('Choose: Rock, Paper, or Scissors? ');
    randNum= randsample(3, 1);
    if (randNum == 1)
        aiChoice = "rock";
    elseif (randNum == 2)
        aiChoice = "paper";
    elseif (randNum == 3)
        aiChoice = "scissors";
    end

    if (strcmp(rps, 'rock'))
        numRock = numRock + 1;
    elseif (strcmp(rps, 'paper'))
        numPaper = numPaper + 1;
    elseif (rps.strcmp(rps, 'scissors'))
        numScissors = numScissors + 1;
    else
        disp('You have not inputted rock, paper, or scissors')
    end

    disp("The AI chose " + aiChoice);
    if (strcmp(aiChoice, "rock") && strcmp(rps, "paper"))
        disp("Your paper beat the AI's rock")
    elseif (strcmp(aiChoice, "paper") && strcmp(rps, "scissors"))
        disp("Your scissors beat the AI's paper")
    elseif (strcmp(aiChoice, "scissors") && strcmp(rps, "rock"))
        disp("Your rock beat the AI's scissors")
    elseif (strcmp(aiChoice, "rock") && strcmp(rps, "scissors"))
        disp("The AI's rock beat your scissors")
    elseif (strcmp(aiChoice, "paper") && strcmp(rps, "rock"))
        disp("The AI's paper beat your rock")
    elseif (strcmp(aiChoice, "scissors") && strcmp(rps, "paper"))
        disp("The AI's scissors beat your paper")
    else
        disp("It's a draw. No one wins this round.")
    end
    playerMoves = [numRock; numPaper; numScissors];
    playAgain = input("Would you like to play again?");
end

As you can see, its not very complicated yet. What could be happening?

[Adam Danz]

I guess my first question is, what makes you think the timezones are associated with this code? I previously asked what user behavior correlates with the timezeone problem but I didn't get an answer with that. Do the timezones appear every time you run this code? Only certain times? Do they ever appear when you're running a different script/function?

Some feedback on the interface (I realize this may be in an early development phase but here's some feedback anyway):

The instructions for the game aren't clear. Will the input accept "rock" "Rock" "ROCK", "1" etc. I had to look into the code to get that answer but your users will have no idea what they are supposed to do. A question dialog box might be a better design.

When I enter one of the 3 options, it just keeps asking for more another choice. I never get any feedback of what my opponent chose. In a real game, we get to see how the opponent is responding.

[Jasmine Ershov]

I do not know that the timezones are associated with the code, but it comes up sometimes when I run the code. They do not appear every time that I run the code. They also sometimes appear in other scripts, but it was most recently in this code. Also, didn't I display what the opponent chose and then who won? It acts the way I want it to for now in my code. Thank you so much for the feedback, though. Again, this is a pretty new project and I do not have much into it yet.

[Adam Danz]

"didn't I display what the opponent chose and then who won?"

Well, I just tested it again and now it's working. This time I used quotes "rock". This highlights the need for clear instructions because previously it wasn't working (maybe I didn't include the quotes or I used a different case).

Back to the main problem... something in your code is invoking a function or script or listener that contains a call to timezones(), if the pattern you're seeing matches the output to the timezones function.

If I were you, I'd search all of your code by following these steps (using Windows operating system).

1. From the command window, press [ctrl]+[shift]+[f] to open the find-files interface.
2. In the "find files containing text", write "timezones"
3. In the "look in", I'd start by searching the parent directory that stores all of (or most of) of your custom matlab scripts and function
4. Make sure "include subfolders" is selected
5. Press "find" and wait for a list of files to appear.

Hopefully that will list some files where timezones appears.

[Adam Danz]

Here's an example of using a dialog box rather than input(). The advantage is that user input is much more constrained. I quickly adapted your code to get it working and if you choose to go fowrard with it, you can clean it up. The user can continue playing as long as they wish by pressing any of the buttons.

h.fh = dialog(); 
h.instructions = uicontrol('Parent',h.fh,'Style','Text','String','Let''s play Rock, Paper Scissors!',...
    'Units','Normalize','Position',[.1 .9 .8 .1],'FontSize', 18); 
h.butn1 = uicontrol('Parent',h.fh,'Style','PushButton','String','Paper',...
    'Units','Normalize','Position',[.1 .5 .2 .1], 'Callback',{@rpsFunc,'paper'}); 
h.butn2 = uicontrol('Parent',h.fh,'Style','PushButton','String','Rock',...
    'Units','Normalize','Position',[.4 .5 .2 .1],'Callback',{@rpsFunc,'rock'}); 
h.butn3 = uicontrol('Parent',h.fh,'Style','PushButton','String','Scissors',...
    'Units','Normalize','Position',[.7 .5 .2 .1],'Callback',{@rpsFunc,'scissors'});
h.results = uicontrol('Parent',h.fh,'Style','Text','String','',...
    'Units','Normalize','Position',[.1 .1 .8 .1],'FontSize', 18,'Tag','ResponsBox'); 

function rpsFunc(hObj,~,rps)
% hObj is the object of the caller
% rps is either 'paper','rock','scissors', lower case
% Get the handle to the results textbox
resultsHand = findobj(hObj.Parent,'Tag','ResponsBox'); 
numRock = 0;
numPaper = 0;
numScissors = 0;
playAgain = true;
playerMoves = [numRock; numPaper; numScissors];
% while (playAgain)
    randNum= randsample(3, 1);
    if (randNum == 1)
        aiChoice = "rock";
    elseif (randNum == 2)
        aiChoice = "paper";
    elseif (randNum == 3)
        aiChoice = "scissors";
    end
    if (strcmp(rps, 'rock'))
        numRock = numRock + 1;
    elseif (strcmp(rps, 'paper'))
        numPaper = numPaper + 1;
    elseif (strcmp(rps, 'scissors'))
        numScissors = numScissors + 1;
    else
        resultsHand.String = 'You have not inputted rock, paper, or scissors'; 
    end
    resultsHand.String = ("The AI chose " + aiChoice);
    if (strcmp(aiChoice, "rock") && strcmp(rps, "paper"))
        resultsHand.String = "Your paper beat the AI's rock";
    elseif (strcmp(aiChoice, "paper") && strcmp(rps, "scissors"))
        resultsHand.String = "Your scissors beat the AI's paper"; 
    elseif (strcmp(aiChoice, "scissors") && strcmp(rps, "rock"))
        resultsHand.String = "Your rock beat the AI's scissors";
    elseif (strcmp(aiChoice, "rock") && strcmp(rps, "scissors"))
        resultsHand.String = "The AI's rock beat your scissors";
    elseif (strcmp(aiChoice, "paper") && strcmp(rps, "rock"))
        resultsHand.String = "The AI's paper beat your rock";
    elseif (strcmp(aiChoice, "scissors") && strcmp(rps, "paper"))
        resultsHand.String = "The AI's scissors beat your paper";
    else
        resultsHand.String = "It's a draw. No one wins this round.";
    end
    playerMoves = [numRock; numPaper; numScissors];
%     playAgain = input("Would you like to play again?");
% end
end

In my opinion, calling this "AI" is a stretch. But it does make it seem more interesting ;)