error when calculating factorial

I want to calculate all the combinations for a X number of variables and I am doing this code:

m=6;%number of variables

TC=0;

for n=1:m,

    C=factorial(m)/((factorial(n)*factorial(m-n));

    TC=TC+C; %total number of combinations

end

TC

but I have the following error message from MATLAB:

Unbalanced or unexpected parenthesis or bracket.

Does anybody know which would be the right code to compute the total number of combinations, or where is the error in my code?

Answer 1

[Christoph]

C=factorial(m)/((factorial(n)*factorial(m-n));

You are opening two parentheses, but closing only one in the denominator

Answer 2

[Ben11]

The error is due to a missing bracket at the end of this line:

C=factorial(m)/((factorial(n)*factorial(m-n));

Add a bracket and it works.

C=factorial(m)/((factorial(n)*factorial(m-n)));

[Josep]

okay, I see the missing bracket but there is still an error..

Error in factorial (line 4)

   C=factorial(m)/((factorial(n)*factorial(m-n)));

any idea?

[Ben11]

what is the error message? I used your code with the added bracket and it worked.

[Josep]

>> factorial Attempt to execute SCRIPT factorial as a function: C:\Users\p105312\Desktop\factorial.m

Error in factorial (line 4) C=factorial(m)/((factorial(n)*factorial(m-n)));

[Ben11]

ok is "factorial" the name of your script? If so change it for something else like Factorial_function for instance, otherwise Matlab might confuse it with the built-in function "factorial".

[Josep]

so what you mean is that I have to save the file as a different name than factorial? Because I have already saved the file as fact.m and it still doesn't work.

[Ben11]

yes, because there is already a built-in function named factorial.

[Josep]

I don't know what I should do to make it works. Sorry for my lack of comprehension but I am new on Matlab.

[Ben11]

No problem! You can simply save your m.file under a different name using the "save as" button.

[Josep]

Okay! the problem has been that I had to delete the file called factorial in my desktop, now it works perfectly!

Thank you very much Bill, you have been very kind and useful!

[Ben11]

can you post your whole .m file?

[Josep]

do you mean this?

[Ben11]

yep. That's weird that it does not work if this is what you have in your m.file. Maybe restart matlab and run it again? Copying this code in your command window generates this error?

[Josep]

that works now, everything okay! Thank you ;)