Time for action - programming the minmax function

1. 1. Open your text editor and write the following code

   Code Listing 5.1
   function [minx, maxx] = minmax(x) #1
   #2
   maxx = max(x); #3
   minx = min(x); #4
   #5
   endfunction #6
   

2. 2. Save the code as minmax.m under the current directory or anywhere in the Octave search path.

3. 3. To execute the function type the following commands at the Octave command prompt:

octave:1> a = rand(1, 5)
a =
0.573584 0.588720 0.112184 0.052960 0.555401
octave:2> [mina, maxa] = minmax(a)
mina = 0.052960
maxa = 0.588720

• as we would expect.

What just happened?

From line 1 in Code Listing 5.1, we see that the function name is minmax, the function takes the input x, and returns two outputs minx and maxx. It should be clear what code lines 3 and 4 do. The endfunction keyword ends the function body. We will adopt the C term "function definition" to refer to the function code, so Code Listing 5.1 is the function definition of minmax.

Note

Instead of endfunction, you can use end...