Ken & Mike on the MATLAB Desktop

May 4th, 2007

Display information from M, MDL and MAT files without opening them

If your memory is like mine, it is handy to quickly review content description to remember functionality of files and directories. From the list of files in the Current Directory Browser, you can see individual file and directory contents displayed in the browser’s lower pane. When a file is selected, the display pane shows M-file help for M-files. Simulink Models show the complete model description. This is convenient when you want to view model information without having to start Simulink. MAT-files show the name, size, bytes and class all without having to load the MAT-file. Directories display the contents.m file.

filebrowser.jpg

In order to display this informative file browser description pane, select the File>Preferences>Current Directory menu. Under the Browser display options, select the check box Show M, MDL and MAT file contents.

preferences_small.jpg

Let me know if this works better than Ginkgo Biloba.

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By Lori Tavis

Lori is a developer on the MATLAB Desktop team. She works primarily on the Current Directory Browser and Preferences. She enjoys writing Java and C++ code when not in a minivan driving her kids from one event to another.

07:00 UTC | Posted in Current Directory | Permalink |

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3 Responses to “Display information from M, MDL and MAT files without opening them”

  1. Amy Farris replied on July 5th, 2007 at 08:13 UTC :

    Love this! Thanks!

  2. Xianyao Chen replied on April 3rd, 2008 at 02:12 UTC :

    Excellent, but is there any commands to show the contents of the mat file without loading them into worksapce? Thanks in advance.

  3. Mike replied on April 3rd, 2008 at 08:11 UTC :

    Xianyao,

    Yes. You can use the who command.

    For instance if your file is mydata.mat:

    >>who -file mydata

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Ken & Mike work on the MATLAB Desktop team.

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