MATLAB Function Reference

partialpath

Partial pathname

Description

A partial pathname is a pathname relative to the MATLAB path, MATLABPATH. It is used to locate private and method files, which are usually hidden, or to restrict the search for files when more than one file with the given name exists.

A partial pathname contains the last component, or last several components, of the full pathname separated by /. For example, matfun/trace, private/children, inline/formula, and demos/clown.mat are valid partial pathnames. Specifying the @ in method directory names is optional, so funfun/inline/formula is also a valid partial pathname.

Partial pathnames make it easy to find toolbox or MATLAB relative files on your path in a portable way, independent of the location where MATLAB is installed.

Many commands accept partial pathnames instead of a full pathname. Some of these commands are

help, type, load, exist, what, which, edit, dbtype, dbstop, 
dbclear, and fopen

Examples

The following examples use partial pathnames.

what funfun/inline

M-files in directory matlabroot\toolbox\matlab\funfun\@inline
argnames    disp        feval       inline      subsref     vertcat     
cat        display    formula    nargin     symvar
char       exist      horzcat    nargout    vectorize
which funfun/inline/formula
matlabroot\toolbox\matlab\funfun\@inline\formula.m                  
% inline method

See Also

path

pareto

pascal