Code Generation: What's the Best Practice?

Hello,

I'm writing a code for comparing multiple numerical optimization algorithms using multiple combination of parameter choices.

The traditional way is to insert tons of "if ... else ..." or "switch ... case ..." statements inside the iterations, but I want my code to generate a new standalone function for each combination of parameter & options.

The traditional way may look like this

option.secondOrder = 'BFGS';
option.tolerance = 1e-8;
result = optimization_algorithm(problem, option);

function r = optimization_algorithm(prob, opt)

% ...

switch opt.secondOrder
    case 'ExactHessian'
        % ...
    case 'BFGS'
        % ...
end

% ...

end

I want to implement something like this

codeType = 'MATLAB'; % {'MATLAB', 'MEX C', 'Embedded C'}
fnfilename = optimization_algorithm.generate_function(option);
result = feval(fnfilename, problem);

For me, I can think of ways of doing this:

• construct a cell array containing all lines of codes, and using frprintf to generate a code file (MPT Toolbox use this method)
• have template code files containing part of code pieces, use string template to replace some of the variable names.

These methods are feasible, however, I want to know if there is a more systematic/organized way of doing this? The thing I want may be keyworded as "string template" or something?

I had some experiences in web development, and I am looking for something PHP-like in MATLAB ecosystem.

Is there anything like this?

Answer 1

[Mario Malic]

You can use

options = optimoptions('fmincon') % example

this will give you the options used by fmincon algorithm with their default values.

Also, there is

options = optimset

this will give you a structure with empty values.

You can set options by typing in

options.CheckGradients = 0; % example

[sjhstone]

Ah, thank you for your reply, but I'm not using any existing code...

I'm writing my own "fmincon", and I want to know how other people are designing the code structure when facing similar problem.