{"id":13842,"date":"2023-02-01T10:06:21","date_gmt":"2023-02-01T15:06:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/simulink\/?p=13842"},"modified":"2023-02-01T10:06:21","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T15:06:21","slug":"leveraging-model-comparison-to-find-what-you-need","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/simulink\/2023\/02\/01\/leveraging-model-comparison-to-find-what-you-need\/","title":{"rendered":"Leveraging Model Comparison to find what you need"},"content":{"rendered":"
Today I want to share an example of how I sometimes use <\/span>Model Comparison<\/span><\/a> to answer questions about Simulink blocks or models. While this is obviously a key part of the workflow to merge branches in a project under source control as I described in <\/span>Three-Way Model Merge and Git<\/span><\/a>, model comparison can also be used to answer subtle \"how-to\" questions.<\/span><\/div>
Let's look at a simple example question I received today and how I used model comparison to answer it.<\/span><\/div>

The Question<\/span><\/h2>
The question I received today is:<\/span><\/div>
\"Hi Guy, do you know of a programmatic way to flip a block on the horizontal axis?\"<\/span><\/div>
I did not know the response off the top of my head, but here is how I figured it out.<\/span><\/div>

Before and After<\/span><\/h2>
The first thing I do in this kind of situation is making an example to confirm my understanding of the question. For that, I created a simple Subsystem with a few ports all around and masked it to make the behavior as obvious as possible. <\/span><\/div>
\"\"<\/img><\/div>
Then I made the requested modification interactively, using the Format Tab of the toolstrip:<\/span><\/div>
\"\"<\/img><\/div>

Comparing Before and After<\/span><\/h2>
I saved two versions of this simple model, one before the change, and one after. Then I simply right-clicked on the two files in the Current Folder Browser and selected <\/span>Compare Selected Files\/Folders<\/span>:<\/span><\/div>
\"\"<\/img><\/div>
In the comparison results, I disabled the filter for Nonfunctional Changes and I could immediately identify the two parameters needed to flip a block horizontally:<\/span><\/div>
\"\"<\/img><\/div>

Validating the Results<\/span><\/h2>
To confirm that the parameters identified by the Model Comparison were what I needed, I wrote this simple script:<\/span><\/div>
\"FlipExample2.gif\"<\/img><\/div>

Now it's your turn<\/span><\/h2>
Are you sometimes using the Model Comparison tool to identify subtle differences between blocks, Subsystems or models? Or to find the parameter you are looking for?<\/span><\/div>
Let us know in the comments below.<\/span><\/div>
<\/div>\r\n<\/div>