what is the purpose of the @ symbol in front of a variable in octave?

Question

For example:

model = svmTrain(X, y, C, @(x1, x2) gaussianKernel(x1, x2, sigma)); 

Disclaimer: This is from the Coursera ML class, but it's nearly impossible to search for the @ symbol conventionally.

Carniola

Answer 1

@ prefixes the definition of an anonymous function.

Nordgren

Answer 2

Also, @ is used to demark a function handle.

Kei

Not in this context. -1 – Nordgren

There is a mismatch between the question title and the contextual example given, being the lack of parentheses in the title. This answer does, in fact, address a possible answer for the title as written. Perhaps an update to reflect this by someone would help solve the ambiguity. – Perilune