Why does tab complete not work for user written functions that except filenames?

Why does tab complete not work for user written functions that except filenames?

   function testFunction(file)
        disp(file)
  end %end function

Call the above function with a file. While entering the file name, try to tab complete it. It won't work. Why not?

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

The rules for tab completion are not well defined, and do not always make sense.

Tab completion for a quoted string takes place if:

• the quoted string is the first expression (possibly after whitespace) after the beginning of the line, or after a comma (",") or semi-colon (";") that marks the end of anything previous on the line
• the quoted string immediately follows (no whitespace) a non-quoted underscore ('_') or period ('.')
• the quoted string immediately follows (no whitespace) a latin letter or latin digit

In addition, there are circumstances under which a quoted string that follows an exclamation mark ('!') may lead to a flawed tab completion, in which the resulting word is missing one or more characters from the file name.

None of the above situations match attempting to enter a valid quoted string as the argument to a function. :(

[Jason Nicholson]

Thanks for the answer. I don't understand why tab complete works for the "load" function. Tab completing

 load('fil

will result in

 load('file'

[Walter Roberson]

Good point. Same for save(). I do not know at the moment.

Answer 2

[David Sanchez]

The user defined function has to be saved on the current directory or its path set on matlab paths. Matlab will not autocomplete a function name of a function located in a directory different to the working directory.

[Jason Nicholson]

I appreciate your answer but it is not correct. The function is definitely on my path and so is the file. I have folder called UserDefinedFunctions where I store my often used scripts. You can see it the 3rd line of my path shown below. The files are most often in my current working folder.

>> path

MATLABPATH

C:\Users\jnicholson\Documents\MATLAB\UserDefinedFunctions\measuretool_1.13 C:\Users\jnicholson\Documents\MATLAB\CoDaTo C:\Users\jnicholson\Documents\MATLAB\UserDefinedFunctions C:\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2010b\toolbox\matlab\general C:\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2010b\toolbox\matlab\ops C:\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2010b\toolbox\matlab\lang C:\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2010b\toolbox\matlab\elmat C:\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2010b\toolbox\matlab\randfun C:\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2010b\toolbox\matlab\elfun C:\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2010b\toolbox\matlab\specfun C:\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2010b\toolbox\matlab\matfun C:\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2010b\toolbox\matlab\datafun C:\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2010b\toolbox\matlab\polyfun C:\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2010b\toolbox\matlab\funfun C:\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2010b\toolbox\matlab\sparfun C:\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2010b\toolbox\matlab\scribe C:\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2010b\toolbox\matlab\graph2d C:\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2010b\toolbox\matlab\graph3d C:\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2010b\toolbox\matlab\specgraph C:\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2010b\toolbox\matlab\graphics C:\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2010b\toolbox\matlab\uitools C:\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2010b\toolbox\matlab\strfun C:\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2010b\toolbox\matlab\imagesci C:\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2010b\toolbox\matlab\iofun C:\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2010b\toolbox\matlab\audiovideo C:\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2010b\toolbox\matlab\timefun C:\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2010b\toolbox\matlab\datatypes C:\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2010b\toolbox\matlab\verctrl C:\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2010b\toolbox\matlab\codetools C:\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2010b\toolbox\matlab\helptools C:\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2010b\toolbox\matlab\winfun C:\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2010b\toolbox\matlab\winfun\net C:\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2010b\toolbox\matlab\demos C:\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2010b\toolbox\matlab\timeseries C:\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2010b\toolbox\matlab\hds C:\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2010b\toolbox\matlab\guide C:\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2010b\toolbox\matlab\plottools C:\MathWorks\MATLAB\R2010b\toolbox\local 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