What does the character ~ mean in these code?

Hi all, I'm confused by the sentence as following:

[~,ind] = min(dist(:));

Could you tell me what does the character "~" mean in this code?

I appreciate your answer.

[Daniel Shub]

Related question: http://www.mathworks.co.uk/matlabcentral/answers/37858-the-sign-is-not-backwards-compatible

Answer 1

[the cyclist]

It is a "dummy" output, meaning that even though MATLAB normally generates that output, you know that you do not need it later in your code. In your particular case, you need the second output (the index), but you don't need the first output (the value of the minimum).

[Yu Zhang]

Thank you very much for your clear explanations. I just encountered the error as following:

"Expression or statement is incorrect--possibly unbalanced (, {, or [. "

It's exactly caused by the sentence “[~,ind] = min(dist(:));"

Do you know the reason?

Thank you very much!

[Walter Roberson]

Note: older versions of MATLAB do not support this syntax. If your version of MATLAB reports an invalid operation at that point, then substitute any convenient temporary variable name for the ~ . For example,

[junk, ind] = min(dist(:));

clear junk

[Yu Zhang]

It works!!!

Thank you VERY much!