setting the path in MATLAB

In Matlab if I type:

path('some_random_folder')

I cannot run any commands, I cannot even quit MATLAB, i need to force quit it.

what happens here? anyone?

Answer 1

[Geoff Hayes]

Nitin - you are changing the MATLAB search path when doing

 path('some_random_folder')

Since you are specifying a new folder, you are losing all of the default (and other) folders that the MATLAB search path included previously. So you won't be able to run any of the MATLAB built-in functions or any of your functions.

To see all of the information that you are losing, type

 path

and something similar to the following will appear

 /Applications/MATLAB_R2014a.app/toolbox/matlab/demos
 /Applications/MATLAB_R2014a.app/toolbox/matlab/graph2d
 /Applications/MATLAB_R2014a.app/toolbox/matlab/graph3d
 /Applications/MATLAB_R2014a.app/toolbox/matlab/graphics
 /Applications/MATLAB_R2014a.app/toolbox/matlab/plottools
 /Applications/MATLAB_R2014a.app/toolbox/matlab/scribe
 /Applications/MATLAB_R2014a.app/toolbox/matlab/specgraph
 /Applications/MATLAB_R2014a.app/toolbox/matlab/uitools
 /Applications/MATLAB_R2014a.app/toolbox/local
 etc.

(The above is from R2014a, OS X 10.8.5.)

If you wish to add a new folder to the MATLAB search path, then just do

 path(path,'some_random_folder');

[Nitin]

Thank you Goeff