How can I turn off fminsearch's exiting complaints?

Is there any way to turn off all of fminsearch's complaints to the command window, such as this one:

Exiting: Maximum number of function evaluations has been exceeded
       - increase MaxFunEvals option.
       Current function value: -Inf

I am running fminsearch thousands of times, and I would like to save the exit codes for later processing. These fminsearch messages clutter up the command window, making it hard to see the messages from my own code that I do want to see.

Neither of the following does the job, and I can't find anything else to try:

pctRunOnAll warning off

opts = optimset('Display','off');

Would appreciate any suggestions--thanks.

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

I just checked the R2018a code for fminsearch. The variable that controls output of the message is set to not print exit messages if 'Display' is set to either 'none' or 'off'

The message IDs used are MATLAB:optimfun:fminsearch:ExitingMaxFunctionEvals MATLAB:optimfun:fminsearch:ExitingMaxIterations However, warning() is not used, so warning('off') cannot turn them off.

Which MATLAB release are you using?

[Jeff Miller]

Thanks very much, Walter.

'none' or 'off' works fine--I had just made a stupid mistake in passing the options.

I'm using R2016b.

[Merse Gaspar]

The same problem for me with R2022a. warning('off') is not working for me. How to solve this problem?

[Jeff Miller]

Something like this:

[H,fval,exitflag, output] = fminsearch(@PMF,[1 2],optimset('TolX',1e-4,'MaxFunEvals',1000,'Display','off'));

Answer 2

[Steven Lord]

Creating an options structure alone is not sufficient to make fminsearch use the modified value of the Display option. It doesn't "change the default Display option" or anything like that. You need to pass that options structure into the fminsearch call as an input argument for that call to use the modified option value.

I'm using one of the examples on the fminsearch documentation page, modified by adding rand so it doesn't converge (and so the default Display option, 'notify', will complain.)

fun = @(x)100*(x(2) - x(1)^2)^2 + (1 - x(1))^2+10*rand;
x0 = [-1.2,1];
opts = optimset('Display', 'off');

Even though I've created opts, this next call doesn't use it so fminsearch displays its message (as per the default value of the Display option, 'notify'.)

[x, ~, exitflag] = fminsearch(fun,x0);

 
Exiting: Maximum number of function evaluations has been exceeded
         - increase MaxFunEvals option.
         Current function value: 4.553418 

exitflag

exitflag = 0

This next call does include opts as an input argument, so this call to fminsearch won't display even though it exits in the same way as the previous call.

[y, ~, exitflag] = fminsearch(fun, x0, opts);
exitflag

exitflag = 0