function with two outputs

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Kendall Donahoe
Kendall Donahoe on 28 Apr 2020
Answered: Steven Lord on 29 Apr 2020
I'm trying to create a function that finds the mean and median of testscores (x). I am then supposed to call a specific input i.e. x=[ 80, 62, 97, 73, 86]. and then use the outputs to find the difference between the mean and the median outside of the function. this is what I have so far:
function [m,d]=testscore(x)
n=length(x);
m= sum(x)/n;
d= median(x);
end
  2 Comments
Toder
Toder on 28 Apr 2020
This looks fine. What is your question?
Geoff Hayes
Geoff Hayes on 29 Apr 2020
Kendall - you can also use the mean function.

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Answers (1)

Steven Lord
Steven Lord on 29 Apr 2020
I'm taking a guess at the problem you're experiencing.
In order to obtain one or more outputs from a function, two conditions must be satisfied.
  1. The function must be defined such that it returns one or more outputs.
  2. The function must be called with one or more outputs, and you will receive as many outputs as you request.
Your function satisfies the first of those conditions. Its definition states that it returns two variables, m and d.
If you call the function with fewer outputs than it defines, MATLAB will return the first however many output arguments you requested. So if you asked:
m1 = testscore(1:10)
you're only going to receive the first output in testscore definition, m. If you asked for both you'll get both.
[m2, d2] = testscore1(1:10)
There's a special case for 0 outputs: see the documentation for the ans function.

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