Why won't "bar" graphing function work?

I am trying to learn MATLAB through examples. When I try bar(y), using examples posted in help documentation I get the following errors:

y = [75.995,91.972,105.711,123.203,131.669,...
     150.697,179.323,203.212,226.505,249.633,281.422];
>> figure; bar(y);
??? Index exceeds matrix dimensions.

Error in ==> bar at 95
        set(listeners(2),'enable','off');

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

Often when something like that happens, it is due to the user having accidentally created a .m file that is the same name as a function used internally.

Which MATLAB release are you using, on which OS?

Answer 2

[Wayne King]

   y = [75.995,91.972,105.711,123.203,131.669,...
      150.697,179.323,203.212,226.505,249.633,281.422]; 
  figure
  bar(y)

Should work fine, are you sure this is the only code you're executing for this example?