Octave script: Command line Arguments as xlim/ylim

Question

I am trying to pass the values for xlim and ylim into my octave script as command line arguments. What I curently have is:

arg_list = argv ();
filename = arg_list{1};
minVal = arg_list{2};
maxVal = arg_list{3};

if (minVal >= maxVal)
  disp(["min (" minVal ") must be less than max (" maxVal ")"]);
else
  %prepare plot 
  plot(x,y);
  xlim([minVal maxVal]);
  ylim([minVal maxVal]);
endif

I call the script form a linux terminal like this:

for f in ./AllValues/Acceleration*.csv; do
  echo "Processing file: $f";
  if echo "$f" | egrep -q "High" ; then
    ./calc.m $f 0 50;
  else
    ./calc.m $f 0 20;
  fi
done

When the min value is 0, the xlim and ylim commands are ignored and the auto-values are used. When I try to set another value, eg. ./script.m file.csv 7 20, the test fails and I get the output min (7) must be less than max (20).

I tried to cast the arguments to int32:

minVal = int32(arg_list{2});
maxVal = int32(arg_list{3});

but that generates an error when trying to set the xlim and ylim, even with a 0 value for min.

I also tried to surround the arguments in single or double quotes:

./script.m file.csv '7' '20'
./script.m file.csv "7" "20"

but that did not change anything.

Any ideas what's wrong with my script?

Answer 1

Wrap the assignments with str2double:

minVal = str2double (arg_list{2});
maxVal = str2double (arg_list{3});

There isn't type cast between string and numerical types, that is why your attempt with int32 have failed.