There are many acceptable ways of punctuating Matlab code in a .m (dot-m) file. Some people ask Steve why he uses the punctuation that he does. Here is the explanation.
Consider the following simple for-loop:
mylist = [ 1 2 3 4 5 ];
for i=1:numel(mylist), % note the comma after the for statement
mylist(i) = mylist(i) * 2;
i, % note the comma after the i
end; % note the semicolon after the 'end'
In a file or in pasted text, this code fragment can also be punctuated:
mylist = [ 1 2 3 4 5 ];
for i=1:numel(mylist)
mylist(i) = mylist(i) * 2;
i
end
Why does Steve generally write using the first approach? The reason is that the code will run the same way if it is reduced to a single line:
mylist = [1 2 3 4 5]; for i=1:numel(mylist), mylist(i) = mylist(i) * 2; i, end; % this will run
mylist = [1 2 3 4 5]; for i=1:numel(mylist) mylist(i) = mylist(i) * 2; i end % this will not run
Usually this is not important, but it allows the formatting to be invariant if the code is collapsed onto a single line or written out. So Steve's punctuation approach is to
End every conditional branch expression (such as for or while) with a comma
End every statement with either a semicolon (if the output is to be suppressed) or a comma (if the output is to be written to the command line)
End every end with a semicolon (note that classdef objects cannot end with a ';' for some reason).