How to define a variable which won't clear when 'clear' command is used

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I have 5 different scripts, running one after the other, each of which uses some of the variable values from the previous one. To abstain from using a lot of memory, I use clear whenever I can. However, there are some variables which I would like to remain in the workspace all the time. I am using clearvars -except right now, but then I have to write down all those variables which I don't want to clear every time in all the scripts. I would rather like to declare the variable in a way that it cannot be cleared by the general clear command. Is there a way to do so? I haven't tried declaring global variables, since I read too many posts advising against it.
  2 Comments
Rik
Rik on 13 Jun 2018
You should consider making those scripts functions instead. That would automatically clear all variable that are not handed back to the calling function. Using nargin, nargout, varargin, and varargout should help you retain a lot of flexibility.
Tejas Adsul
Tejas Adsul on 13 Jun 2018
Well, I was hesitant to convert them into functions since I would have about 10 input arguments and 5-6 output arguments. But if it takes lesser effort than consistently having to list variables in clearvars, I'll try that.

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Answers (1)

Steven Lord
Steven Lord on 13 Jun 2018
With 10 inputs and 5-6 outputs, it's probably going to be pretty easy to accidentally omit one or put one in the wrong order. I would likely turn this script into a function (as others have suggested) and bundle the inputs/outputs into a struct array. That has an additional benefit in that if you decide to enhance your function in such a way that it requires additional information as input or returns additional information as output, you don't need to change the signature of your function. You just need to add a new field to the input struct or access data from the new field of the output struct.

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