How to Rename Variables Automatically

Hello, and welcome back to another MATLAB video. Today we're talking about using MATLAB to automatically rename variables.

A situation familiar to many MATLAB users is when multiple instances of a variable in a script need to be renamed. The MATLAB Editor allows users to rename all instances of a variable while retooling their code. This ability to automatically edit variables in a script is especially useful in any code with multiple occurrences of a certain variable.

For example, if you have a variable written multiple times in a script, and later you want to make all occurrences of that variable more descriptive, you can change one and have MATLAB adjust the rest for you to reflect the edits you made.

When clicked on a variable in the editor, MATLAB automatically highlights all of their instances of that variable and will apply your edits globally to all of those instances if you hit shift return, as shown here.

While this functionality has various uses, the ability to rename variables automatically only occurs if you adjust the variable on the left side of an equal sign. Adjusting a variable on the right side of an equal sign or in a line without an equal sign will only adjust that one variable instance.

In this video, we have discussed the usefulness of using the MATLAB Editor to rename variables automatically. Now that we have a deeper understanding of how renaming multiple instances of a variable simultaneously can increase the efficacy of optimizing a script, you'll be able to write and optimize code more efficiently and fluidly.

Thanks for watching, and I'll see you guys in another video.