Issuing Warnings (GNU Octave (version 9.1.0))

#### 12.2.1 Issuing Warnings ¶

It is possible to issue warnings from any code using the `warning` function. In its most simple form, the `warning` function takes a string describing the warning as its input argument. As an example, the following code controls if the variable ‘`a`’ is non-negative, and if not issues a warning and sets ‘`a`’ to zero.

    a = -1;
    if (a < 0)
      warning ("'a' must be non-negative.  Setting 'a' to zero.");
      a = 0;
    endif
         -| 'a' must be non-negative.  Setting 'a' to zero.

Since warnings aren’t fatal to a running program, it is not possible to catch a warning using the `try` statement or something similar. It is however possible to access the last warning as a string using the `lastwarn` function.

It is also possible to assign an identification string to a warning. If a warning has such an ID the user can enable and disable this warning as will be described in the next section. To assign an ID to a warning, simply call `warning` with two string arguments, where the first is the identification string, and the second is the actual warning. Note that warning IDs are in the format `"NAMESPACE:WARNING-NAME"`. The namespace `"Octave"` is used for Octave’s own warnings. Any other string is available as a namespace for user’s own warnings.

: warning `(template, …)` ¶
: warning `(id, template, …)` ¶
: warning `("on", id)` ¶
: warning `("off", id)` ¶
: warning `("error", id)` ¶
: warning `("query", id)` ¶
: warning `(state, id, "local")` ¶
: warning `(warning_struct)` ¶
: `warning_struct =` warning `(…)` ¶
: warning `(state, mode)` ¶

  Display a warning message or control the behavior of Octave’s warning system.

  The first call form uses a template template and optional additional arguments to display a message on the `stderr` stream. The message is formatted using the same rules as the `printf` family of functions (see Formatted Output) and prefixed by the character string ‘`warning:` ’. You should use this function when you want to notify the user of an unusual condition, but only when it makes sense for your program to go on. For example:

      warning ("foo: maybe something wrong here");

  If the warning message does not end with a newline character, Octave will print a traceback of all the function calls leading to the warning. If the warning message does end in a newline character, Octave will suppress the traceback messages as it returns control to the top level. For more details and examples, see `error`.

  The optional warning identifier id allows users to enable or disable warnings tagged by this identifier. A message identifier is a string of the form `"NAMESPACE:WARNING-NAME"`. Octave’s own warnings use the `"Octave"` namespace (see `warning_ids`). For example:

      warning ("MyNameSpace:check-something",
               "foo: maybe something wrong here");

  The second call form is meant to change and/or query the state of warnings. The first input argument must be a string state (`"on"`, `"off"`, `"error"`, or `"query"`) followed by an optional warning identifier id or `"all"` (default).

  The optional output argument warning_struct is a structure or structure array with fields `"state"` and `"identifier"`. The state argument may have the following values:

  `"on"`|`"off"`:

    Enable or disable the display of warnings identified by id and optionally return their previous state stout.

  `"error"`:

    Turn warnings identified by id into errors and optionally return their previous state stout.

  `"query"`:

    Return the current state of warnings identified by id.

  A structure or structure array warning_struct, with fields `"state"` and `"identifier"`, may be given as an input to achieve equivalent results. The following example shows how to temporarily disable a warning and then restore its original state:

      loglog (-1:10);
      ## Disable the previous warning and save its original state
      [~, id] = lastwarn ();
      warnstate = warning ("off", id);
      loglog (-1:10);
      ## Restore its original state
      warning (warnstate);

  If a final argument `"local"` is provided then the warning state will be set temporarily until the end of the current function. Changes to warning states that are set locally affect the current function and all functions called from the current scope. The previous warning state is restored on return from the current function. The `"local"` option is ignored if used in the top-level workspace.

  With no input argument `warning ()` is equivalent to `warning ("query", "all")` except that in the absence of an output argument, the state of warnings is displayed on `stderr`.

  The level of verbosity of the warning system may also be controlled by two modes mode:

  `"backtrace"`:

    enable/disable the display of the stack trace after the warning message

  `"verbose"`:

    enable/disable the display of additional information after the warning message

  In this case the state argument may only be `"on"` or `"off"`.

  Implementation Note: For compatibility with MATLAB, escape sequences in template (e.g., `"\n"` => newline) are processed regardless of whether template has been defined with single quotes, as long as there are two or more input arguments. To disable escape sequence expansion use a second backslash before the sequence (e.g., `"\\n"`) or use the `regexptranslate` function.

  See also: warning_ids, lastwarn, error.

: `[msg, msgid] =` lastwarn `()` ¶
: lastwarn `(msg)` ¶
: lastwarn `(msg, msgid)` ¶

  Query or set the last warning message.

  When called without input arguments, return the last warning message and message identifier.

  With one argument, set the last warning message to msg.

  With two arguments, also set the last message identifier to msgid.

  See also: warning, lasterror, lasterr.

The functions distributed with Octave can issue one of the following warnings.

`Octave:abbreviated-property-match`

  If the `Octave:abbreviated-property-match` warning is enabled, a warning is printed if a non-exact or ambiguous match is being used for a operation specifying an object property. For example, for a graphics object, fig, with the property `'displayname'`, `get (fig, 'dis')` elicits a warning if the `Octave:abbreviated-property-match` warning is enabled. By default, the `Octave:abbreviated-property-match` warning is enabled.

`Octave:addpath-pkg`

  If the `Octave:addpath-pkg` warning is enabled, Octave will warn when a package directory (i.e., +package_name) is added to the `path`. Typically, only the parent directory which contains the package directory should be added to the load path. By default, the `Octave:addpath-pkg` warning is enabled.

`Octave:array-as-logical`

  If the `Octave:array-as-logical` warning is enabled, Octave will warn when an array of size greater than 1x1 is used as a truth value in an if, while, or until statement. By default, the `Octave:array-as-logical` warning is disabled.

`Octave:array-to-scalar`

  If the `Octave:array-to-scalar` warning is enabled, Octave will warn when an implicit conversion from an array to a scalar value is attempted. By default, the `Octave:array-to-scalar` warning is disabled.

`Octave:array-to-vector`

  If the `Octave:array-to-vector` warning is enabled, Octave will warn when an implicit conversion from an array to a vector value is attempted. By default, the `Octave:array-to-vector` warning is disabled.

`Octave:assign-as-truth-value`

  If the `Octave:assign-as-truth-value` warning is enabled, a warning is issued for statements like

      if (s = t)
        ...

  since such statements are not common, and it is likely that the intent was to write

      if (s == t)
        ...

  instead.

  There are times when it is useful to write code that contains assignments within the condition of a `while` or `if` statement. For example, statements like

      while (c = getc ())
        ...

  are common in C programming.

  It is possible to avoid all warnings about such statements by disabling the `Octave:assign-as-truth-value` warning, but that may also let real errors like

      if (x = 1)  # intended to test (x == 1)!
        ...

  slip by.

  In such cases, it is possible suppress errors for specific statements by writing them with an extra set of parentheses. For example, writing the previous example as

      while ((c = getc ()))
        ...

  will prevent the warning from being printed for this statement, while allowing Octave to warn about other assignments used in conditional contexts.

  By default, the `Octave:assign-as-truth-value` warning is enabled.

`Octave:autoload-relative-file-name`

  If the `Octave:autoload-relative-file-name` is enabled, Octave will warn when parsing autoload() function calls with relative paths to function files. This usually happens when using autoload() calls in PKG_ADD files, when the PKG_ADD file is not in the same directory as the .oct file referred to by the autoload() command. By default, the `Octave:autoload-relative-file-name` warning is enabled.

`Octave:charmat-truncated`

  If the `Octave:charmat-truncated` warning is enabled, a warning is printed when a character matrix with multiple rows is converted to a string. In this case, the Octave interpreter keeps only the first row and discards the others. By default, the `Octave:charmat-truncated` warning is enabled.

`Octave:classdef-to-struct`

  If the `Octave:classdef-to-struct` warning is enabled, a warning is issued when a classdef object is forcibly converted into a struct with `struct (CLASSDEF_OBJ)`. Conversion removes the access restrictions from the object and makes private and protected properties visible. By default, the `Octave:classdef-to-struct` warning is enabled.

`Octave:colon-complex-argument`

  If the `Octave:colon-complex-argument` warning is enabled, a warning is issued when one of the three arguments to the colon operator (base, increment, limit) is a complex value. For example, `1:3*i` will cause a warning to be emitted. By default, the `Octave:colon-complex-argument` warning is enabled.

`Octave:colon-nonscalar-argument`

  If the `Octave:colon-nonscalar-argument` warning is enabled, a warning is issued when one of the three arguments to the colon operator (base, increment, limit) is not a scalar. For example, `1:[3, 5]` will cause a warning to be emitted. By default, the `Octave:colon-nonscalar-argument` warning is enabled.

`Octave:data-file-in-path`

  If the `Octave:data-file-in-path` warning is enabled, a warning is issued when Octave does not find the target of a file operation such as `load` or `fopen` directly, but is able to locate the file in Octave’s search `path` for files. The warning could indicate that a different file target than the programmer intended is being used. By default, the `Octave:data-file-in-path` warning is enabled.

`Octave:datevec:date-format-spec`

  If the `Octave:datevec:date-format-spec` warning is enabled, a warning is printed if the date format specification contains questionable date or time specifiers. Typical bad patterns are using uppercase date specifiers or lowercase time specifiers. By default, the `Octave:datevec:date-format-spec` warning is enabled.

`Octave:deprecated-function`

  If the `Octave:deprecated-function` warning is enabled, a warning is issued when Octave encounters a function that is obsolete and scheduled for removal from Octave. By default, the `Octave:deprecated-function` warning is enabled.

`Octave:deprecated-keyword`

  If the `Octave:deprecated-keyword` warning is enabled, a warning is issued when Octave encounters a keyword that is obsolete and scheduled for removal from Octave. By default, the `Octave:deprecated-keyword` warning is enabled.

`Octave:deprecated-option`

  If the `Octave:deprecated-option` warning is enabled, a warning is issued when an obsolete option or input to a function is used. By default, the `Octave:deprecated-option` warning is enabled.

`Octave:deprecated-property`

  If the `Octave:deprecated-property` warning is enabled, a warning is issued when Octave encounters a graphics property that is obsolete and scheduled for removal from Octave. By default, the `Octave:deprecated-property` warning is enabled.

`Octave:eigs:UnconvergedEigenvalues`

  If the `Octave:eigs:UnconvergedEigenvalues` warning is enabled then the eigs function will issue a warning if the number of calculated eigenvalues is less than the number of requested eigenvalues. By default, the `Octave:eigs:UnconvergedEigenvalues` warning is enabled.

`Octave:empty-index`

  If the `Octave:empty-index` warning is enabled then Octave will emit a warning whenever indexing operators are used without an index, for example `x()`. By default, the `Octave:empty-index` warning is enabled.

`Octave:erase:chararray`

  If the `Octave:erase:chararray` warning is enabled then the erase function will issue a warning if the input pattern is a character array rather than a string or cell array of strings. By default, the `Octave:erase:chararray` warning is enabled.

`Octave:function-name-clash`

  If the `Octave:function-name-clash` warning is enabled, a warning is issued when Octave finds that the name of a function defined in a function file differs from the name of the file. (If the names disagree, the name declared inside the file is ignored.) By default, the `Octave:function-name-clash` warning is enabled.

`Octave:future-time-stamp`

  If the `Octave:future-time-stamp` warning is enabled, Octave will print a warning if it finds a function file with a time stamp that is in the future. By default, the `Octave:future-time-stamp` warning is enabled.

`Octave:glyph-render`

  If the `Octave:glyph-render` warning is enabled, Octave will print a warning if the glyph for a character couldn’t be rendered with the current font. By default, the `Octave:glyph-render` warning is enabled.

`Octave:imag-to-real`

  If the `Octave:imag-to-real` warning is enabled, a warning is printed for implicit conversions of complex numbers to real numbers. By default, the `Octave:imag-to-real` warning is disabled.

`Octave:infinite-loop`

  If the `Octave:infinite-loop` warning is enabled, a warning is printed when an infinite loop is detected such as `for i = 1:Inf` or `while (1)`. By default, the `Octave:infinite-loop` warning is enabled.

`Octave:language-extension`

  Print warnings when using features that are unique to the Octave language and that may still be missing in MATLAB. By default, the `Octave:language-extension` warning is disabled. The `--traditional` or `--braindead` startup options for Octave may also be of use, see Command Line Options.

`Octave:legacy-function`

  If the `Octave:legacy-function` warning is enabled, a warning is issued when Octave encounters a function that MATLAB has suggested should be avoided. The function may become obsolete at some point in the future and removed, in which case the warning will change to `Octave:deprecated-function`, and the function will continue to exist for two further versions of Octave before being removed. By default, the `Octave:legacy-function` warning is enabled.

`Octave:logical-conversion`

  If the `Octave:logical-conversion` warning is enabled, a warning is printed if an implicit conversion of an array from numerical to boolean occurs and any of the elements in the array are not equal to zero or one. By default, the `Octave:logical-conversion` warning is enabled.

`Octave:lu:sparse_input`

  If the `Octave:lu:sparse_input` warning is enabled, Octave will warn when the lu function is called with a sparse input and less than four output arguments. In this case, sparsity-preserving column permutations are not performed and the result may be inaccurate. By default, the `Octave:lu:sparse_input` warning is enabled.

`Octave:missing-glyph`

  If the `Octave:glyph-render` warning is enabled, Octave will print a warning if the current font doesn’t provide a glyph for a used character. By default, the `Octave:missing-glyph` warning is enabled.

`Octave:missing-semicolon`

  If the `Octave:missing-semicolon` warning is enabled, Octave will warn when statements in function definitions don’t end in semicolons. By default the `Octave:missing-semicolon` warning is disabled.

`Octave:mixed-string-concat`

  If the `Octave:mixed-string-concat` warning is enabled, print a warning when concatenating a mixture of double and single quoted strings. By default, the `Octave:mixed-string-concat` warning is disabled.

`Octave:nearly-singular-matrix`
`Octave:singular-matrix`

  These warnings are emitted if a (nearly) singular matrix is inverted. By default, the `Octave:nearly-singular-matrix` and `Octave:singular-matrix` warnings are enabled.

`Octave:neg-dim-as-zero`

  If the `Octave:neg-dim-as-zero` warning is enabled, print a warning for expressions like

      eye (-1)

  By default, the `Octave:neg-dim-as-zero` warning is disabled.

`Octave:noninteger-range-as-index`

  If the `Octave:noninteger-range-as-index` warning is enabled, a warning is printed if an array is indexed with a range that contains non-integer values. For example,

      a = [1 2 3 4 5];
      b = 2.2:4.2
      ⇒ 1.2  2.2  3.2
      a(b)
      ⇒ 2 3 4

  elicits a warning if the `Octave:noninteger-range-as-index` warning is enabled. By default, the `Octave:noninteger-range-as-index` warning is enabled.

`Octave:num-to-str`

  If the `Octave:num-to-str` warning is enabled, a warning is printed for implicit conversions of numbers to their UTF-8 encoded character equivalents when strings are constructed using a mixture of strings and numbers in matrix notation. For example,

      [ "f", 111, 111 ]
      ⇒ "foo"

  elicits a warning if the `Octave:num-to-str` warning is enabled. By default, the `Octave:num-to-str` warning is enabled.

`Octave:possible-matlab-short-circuit-operator`

  If the `Octave:possible-matlab-short-circuit-operator` warning is enabled, Octave will warn about using the not short circuiting operators `&` and `|` inside `if` or `while` conditions. They normally never short circuit, but they do short circuit when used in a condition. By default, the `Octave:possible-matlab-short-circuit-operator` warning is enabled.

`Octave:pow2:imaginary-ignored`

  If the `Octave:pow2:imaginary-ignored` warning is enabled, a warning is printed if either input to `pow2` is complex. By default, the `Octave:pow2:imaginary-ignored` warning is enabled.

`Octave:recursive-path-search`

  If the `Octave:recursive-path-search` warning is enabled, Octave will issue a warning if `addpath` is used with double trailing slashes. By default, the `Octave:recursive-path-search` warning is enabled.

`Octave:remove-init-dir`

  The `path` function changes the search path that Octave uses to find functions. It is possible to set the path to a value which excludes Octave’s own built-in functions. If the `Octave:remove-init-dir` warning is enabled then Octave will warn when the `path` function has been used in a way that may render Octave unworkable. By default, the `Octave:remove-init-dir` warning is enabled.

`Octave:reload-forces-clear`

  If several functions have been loaded from the same file, Octave must clear all the functions before any one of them can be reloaded. If the `Octave:reload-forces-clear` warning is enabled, Octave will warn you when this happens, and print a list of the additional functions that it is forced to clear. By default, the `Octave:reload-forces-clear` warning is enabled.

`Octave:separator-insert`

  Print warning if commas or semicolons might be inserted automatically in literal matrices. By default, the `Octave:separator-insert` warning is disabled.

`Octave:shadowed-function`

  If the `Octave:shadowed-function` warning is enabled, Octave will warn if a path is added to the search path that contains functions that shadow core functions. By default, the `Octave:shadowed-function` warning is enabled.

`Octave:single-quote-string`

  Print warning if a single quote character is used to introduce a string constant. By default, the `Octave:single-quote-string` warning is disabled.

`Octave:sparse:double-conversion`

  If the `Octave:sparse:double-conversion` warning is enabled, a warning is printed when an implicit conversion from a full, single array occurs during the creation of a sparse array. By default, the `Octave:sparse:double-conversion` warning is enabled.

`Octave:sqrtm:SingularMatrix`

  If the `Octave:sqrtm:SingularMatrix` warning is enabled, a warning is printed if the matrix square root function `sqrtm` is called with an input matrix that is singular. By default, the `Octave:sqrtm:SingularMatrix` warning is enabled.

`Octave:str-to-num`

  If the `Octave:str-to-num` warning is enabled, a warning is printed for implicit conversions of strings to their numeric UTF-8 encoded byte sequences. For example,

      "abc" + 0
      ⇒ 97 98 99

  elicits a warning if the `Octave:str-to-num` warning is enabled. By default, the `Octave:str-to-num` warning is disabled.

`Octave:LaTeX:internal-error`

  If the `Octave:LaTeX:internal-error` warning is enabled, a warning is printed whenever the LaTeX renderer for text in plots encounters an issue. By default, the `Octave:LaTeX:internal-error` warning is enabled.

`Octave:unimplemented-matlab-functionality`

  If the `Octave:unimplemented-matlab-functionality` warning is enabled, a warning is printed when a MATLAB code construct is used which the Octave interpreter parses as valid, but for which Octave does not yet implement the functionality. By default, the `Octave:unimplemented-matlab-functionality` warning is enabled.

`Octave:variable-switch-label`

  If the `Octave:variable-switch-label` warning is enabled, Octave will print a warning if a switch label is not a constant or constant expression. By default, the `Octave:variable-switch-label` warning is disabled.