When a Matlab function block running inside a simulink model gives an error, how can I find out which line the error occurred on?

When running a Simulink model that contains an "Interpreted Matlab Function" block, if an error occurs inside the Matlab function there seems to be no easy way to find out what line of the function gave the error. When the error occurs, a Simulink Diagnostics window pops up telling me what error occurred and which block it occurred in. But is doesn't say what line of the function caused the error.

This is a problem I encounter frequently, and it is difficult to debug. For instance, it just occurred about a half hour into a simulation. What I'll probably do is start outputting a bunch of values to the command window so I can get an idea where in the function the error occurred, but I can take a very long time to find the error this way when it occurs far along in the simulation.

It seems like Matlab must know what line caused the error, right? How can I get it to tell me?

Thanks for any help!

Answer 1

[Anderson]

Okay, a co-worker (Alexander Brissette) came up with a good solution using try-catch. It works like this:

      try
          <code that might produce error>
      catch err
          err
          err.stack
          line = err.stack(1).line
      end

This prints the error, filename, and line number. You can also put a breakpoint in the "catch" block so you can see all your variables when an error occurs. You could put an entire function inside the try block. And it works even when the function is called from within Simulink!

Answer 2

[David Sanchez]

http://www.mathworks.es/es/help/matlab/debugging-code.html

[Anderson]

Thanks, but it is not clear to me which of these functions you are suggesting I try.

If you're suggesting breakpoints, I do use them frequently. However when calling a function from Simulink the function may run thousands of times before giving an error. So what I'll often do is put a breakpoint inside an {if} statement so it only breaks on the timestep where the error occurs, but this is still very time consuming. It seems there should be a simple way for Matlab/Simulink to tell me which line caused the error, just like it does when you're running a function normally (without using Simulink).

[David Sanchez]

For what you say, it seems your code has to be right, does any signal become complex during runtime? What messages do you receive from simulink?

[Anderson]

The two simulink error messages are: Error in Interpretted Matlab Function block and Matrix dimension must agree

Unfortunately there are at least several hundred matrix operations in the function that gives the error, so it's a tedious process to narrow down.

If you mean "complex" as in (real+imaginary), no, there are no complex signals.

Answer 3

[Kaustubha Govind]

You could try using dbstop if error to see if the execution breaks when the error occurs.

[Anderson]

That seemed like a good idea, but it didn't work. It appears that "dbstop if error" is ignored when a function is called from within Simulink. I do not "clear all" before running, so I'm not sure why Simulink would ignore the dbstop....