Error saving figure: "fileparts (line 43). input must be a row vector of characters"

Hello, I recently can't save figures as .fig files. it worked until a few weeks ago but suddenly I'm getting an error. I can save the same figure as .png or .jpg, but specifically .fig is not working anymore. The error: "input must be a row vector of characters". I changed the file name to only letters but it still didn't work. this is my code:

> f=figure;
> plot(courtship_index),
> cd('/Users/dgal/MATLAB_results/160901_courtship/') 
> saveas(f, 'courtship_index', 'fig')

and I received this error chain:

   Error using fileparts (line 43)
  Input must be a row vector of characters.

Error in savefig (line 53)
  [fpath,fname1,ext] = fileparts(fname);

Error in saveasfig (line 6)
savefig(h, name);

Error in saveas (line 140)
    feval( ['saveas' format], h, name )

Error in trim_function (line 67)
saveas(f, 'courtship_index', 'fig')

in a separate case I plotted a different figure and tried to save it by clicking "file" -> "save as" on the figure itself, but got the same error: "error using fileparts (line 43). input must be a row vector of characters".

[George]

Can you try the same concept, but using savefig instead and post the results?

[Dana Galili]

George: I tried but received the same error message: >> savefig(f, 'courtship_index', 'fig') Error using fileparts (line 43) Input must be a row vector of characters.

Error in savefig (line 53) [fpath,fname1,ext] = fileparts(fname);

[dpb]

What happens if you simply try fileparts from the command line--

fileparts('courtship_index')  % ?

Also what does

which fileparts

return and there's always

clear fileparts

then see what happens...

[Dana Galili]

dpb: that did not help. here is my code:

fileparts('courtship_index')

ans =

     ''

> which fileparts

/Users/dgalili/Documents/MATLAB/JAABA_Release_v0.6.0/filehandling/fileparts.m

> clear fileparts

> savefig(f, 'courtship_index', 'fig')

Error using fileparts (line 43) Input must be a row vector of characters.

Error in savefig (line 53) [fpath,fname1,ext] = fileparts(fname);

Answer 1

[Steven Lord]

Which release of MATLAB are you using?

Are you certain you're using the fileparts function included in MATLAB? Does this show any fileparts.m file outside the toolbox/matlab subdirectory in your MATLAB root directory?

which -all fileparts

[Dana Galili]

Steven Lord: I am using MATLAB_R2016a.

>> which -all fileparts

/Users/dgalili/Documents/MATLAB/JAABA_Release_v0.6.0/filehandling/fileparts.m /Applications/MATLAB_R2016a.app/toolbox/matlab/iofun/fileparts.m % Shadowed

[Steven Lord]

This JAABA toolbox appears to have defined their own version of fileparts.m and that function has a different interface and/or functionality than the fileparts function included in MATLAB.

If JAABA refers to this project on SourceForge you may want to ask on the mailing list linked on that site what the ramifications would be of deleting the fileparts.m included in their directory so that the one included in MATLAB is used instead.

[Dana Galili]

thank you, Steven Lord. I contacted the developer of JAABA and this was his answer: "I wouldn't suggest deleting the JAABA fileparts.m outright. A fix (although clumsy) would be to rename JAABA's fileparts.m, run saveas, then rename the file back to fileparts.m" . this sounds a bit clumsy to me, since it means i will have to rename fileparts.m every time i want to save a figure. additionally, I am not sure how to do this, without affecting MATLAB's function. what do you think? thank you. Dana

[Steven Lord]

Without knowing what they're doing in their fileparts.m, how exactly it differs from the fileparts function included in MATLAB, and why they chose to shadow fileparts I don't know what the best alternate approach would be. Some alternatives would be for the JAABA developer to make fileparts.m private, put it in a package directory, or rename it.

[dpb]

Do you have the source for this app? If so, I'd make the changes therein to eliminate the problem. The simplest would seem to be to make their function private so it doesn't interfere with Matlab; slightly more complex would be to rename theirs instead of base product one and another would be to fix the calling sequence so it mimics the base product albeit the latter could be more involved.

Whatever, the project folks should be made aware that doing what they've done is a really, really, really dumb idea and should be fixed on their end.

[Dana Galili]

thank you Steven Lord and dpb. I contacted the developer and they will look into implementing these suggestions.

[dpb]

That would be good move on their part, indeed. BTW, the comment above to "fix the calling sequence so it mimics the base product" really means fix their code to use the builtin function instead, not supply another of same name...poorly worded that part fer shure... :(

[Dana Galili]

The bug was caused because JAABA's savefig clashed with Matlab's savefig. the developer renamed JAABA's savefig and saveas now works fine. thanks for all the help.

[Steven Lord]

Ah, so the root cause of the problem was one level up. Thanks for closing the loop and letting us know what happened.