Dev-iL has provided a good answer using java etc... I will provide an alternative here which does not use java or the editor, but reads the file and evals the statements when requested.
For this to work it has a pre-requirement that the file has been saved (which I appreciate is not a pre-requisite of running cells/codeBlocks interactively).
Anyway I thought this was a "quirky" question and thought I'd add have a go at an answer.
Here is my script (cellScript.m) which contains code blocks (Note I have given each block a name after the "%%":
%Note: for this method your NOT allowed to put comments at the end of lines
%% cellA
disp ( 'running cell A' );
disp ( 'finished cell A' );
%% cellB
disp ( 'running cell B' );
disp ( 'finished cell B' );
%% cellC
disp ( 'running cell C' );
for ii=1:100
aa(ii) = randi(1);
end
% cells can have comments
disp ( 'past 1st coment' );
% cells comments can be indented
disp ( 'past indented comment' );
%{
block
comment
%}
disp ( 'past block comment' );
% cells can have comments
% multiple lines of comments
% not lined up
%
%and empty
disp ( 'past multiple lines of comments' );
disp ( 'finished cell C' );
%% cellD
disp ( 'running cell D' );
disp ( 'finished cell D' );
%% cellE
disp ( 'running cell E' );
disp ( 'finished cell E' );
I have created a class which does the job requested (I called it cellRunner.m )
classdef cellRunner < handle
properties ( SetAccess = private )
fileName
fileInfo
cellInfo
cellNames = {};
end
methods
function obj = cellRunner ( file ) % constructor
if nargin == 0
obj.fileName = 'cellScript.m'; % default file for testing
else
obj.fileName = file; % store user file
end
obj.parseFile(); % read the file into memory
end
function obj = parseFile ( obj )
if ~isempty ( obj.fileInfo ) % on parsing check to see if its been parsed before
if isequal ( obj.fileInfo, dir ( obj.fileName ) ) % Check date stamp (has cell file been modified
% disp ( 'file not changed - reading skipped' ); % if not skip
% reading
return
end
end
obj.fileInfo = dir ( obj.fileName ); % store file info
fid = fopen ( obj.fileName ); % open file for reading
if fid ~= -1
index = 0; % this is the index of each cell
inCell = false; % has it found a cell to start reading
lines = cell(0);
while ( true )
line = fgetl ( fid ); % read the line in the file
if line == -1; break; end % check for the end of the file
sLine = strtrim ( line ); % trim any white space
if length ( sLine ) > 2 && strcmp ( sLine(1:2), '%%' ) % check to see if its the start of a cell
if index > 0 % Store the last cell data
obj.cellInfo{index} = lines; % in class to run when required
end
index = index + 1; % increment the index
obj.cellNames{index} = strtrim ( sLine(3:end) ); % save the name of the cell
lines = cell(0); % re-initialise the lines var
inCell = true; % the start of the cells have been found
elseif inCell % if reading a cell array
lines{end+1} = line; % add each line to the lines var
end
end
if index > 0 % make sure and save the last cell when finished reading
obj.cellInfo{index} = lines;
end
fclose ( fid );
else
error ( 'cellRunner:fileError', 'unable to read file' );
end
end
function obj = runCell ( obj, arg )
% obj.runCell ( 'cellName' );
% obj.runCell ( index );
obj.parseFile(); % check that the file hasn't been changed
if ischar ( arg ) % if user provided a char then search for it
index = strcmp ( arg, obj.cellNames ); % find the index
if ~any ( index ) % check it was found
error ( 'cellRunner:notFound', '%s not found', arg );
end
else
index = arg; % if index is an integer (not checked - assumed if not char)
if index < 1 || index > length ( obj.cellInfo ) % check integer is valid
error ( 'cellRunner:notFound', 'Index %d not found', arg );
end
end
commands = obj.cellInfo{index}{1}; % start to build the command to execute.
inBlock = false;
for ii=2:length(obj.cellInfo{index}) % loop around - ignoring any commented lines.
nextLine = strtrim ( obj.cellInfo{index}{ii} );
if inBlock
if length ( nextLine ) == 2 && strcmp ( nextLine, '%}' );
inBlock = false;
end
continue
end
if length ( nextLine ) == 2 && strcmp ( nextLine, '%{' );
inBlock = true;
continue
end
if length ( nextLine ) >= 1 && strcmp ( nextLine(1), '%' )
continue;
end
commands = sprintf ( '%s;%s', commands, obj.cellInfo{index}{ii} ); % build a parge string to eval
end
evalin('base',commands); % eval the expression in the base workspace.
end
end
end
The code is then used as follows:
obj.cellRunner();
% Individual cells can be run in two ways:
% By providing the name of the cell (the string after the %%)
obj.runCell ( 'cellC' );
% By providing the index
obj.runCell ( 3 );
Note Recall the file must be saved for this to work.
Sample run:
whos
obj = cellRunner ( 'cellScript.m' );
obj.runCell ( 'cellC' );
running cell C
past 1st coment
past indented comment
past block comment
past multiple lines of comments
finished cell C
whos
Name Size Bytes Class Attributes
aa 1x100 800 double
ans 1x1 112 cellRunner
ii 1x1 8 double
obj 1x1 112 cellRunner
Note 1 - Why handle class? I inherit from the handle class because I only want one copy of my file data that has been read - see answer 1 in this question for an excellent overview of when to use value/handle classes.
%%will be highlighted in bold in the editor), then I mix between what I type/try in the console and the editor where I execute full cells. If I get a succession of commands which satisfy me, I just drag that (from the command history) to the editor, make a new cell, give it a good name so I find it easily later, then move on to my next piece of code. – Leroi