Basic Function that Prompts User and then Calculates Accordingly

I'm trying to create a function that gives the user a prompt box that asks the user to choose subtraction or division. This is just a very basic version of what I'm trying to do. I'll paste my code below.

function[result1] = calculate1(x,y)
z = inputdlg({'Subtraction or Division'})
if  z == 'subtraction'
    x + 1
else 
    y + 1 
end 
end

[Rik]

Your output is not defined in this function, and you are using == instead of strcmp, which will likely result in unintended behavior.

[Wycliff Dembe]

In addition to using strcmp and defining result1 in the function you can also consider abstracting the input if there are only two or few input choices by creating question dialog box to avoid the case sensitivity and other user input errors. Ref: https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/questdlg.html

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

inputdlg() returns a cell array of character vectors.

z = inputdlg({'Subtraction or Division'});
if strcmpi(z{1}, 'subtraction')
  ...
end

You should also consider using menu()

[Steven Lord]

I second Walter's recommendation to use menu. If you must use inputdlg instead of menu (you're trying to complete a homework assignment that specifically instructs you to use inputdlg, for example) I recommend using a switch statement instead of an if statement. See the first example on the switch documentation page for a demonstration of switch, case, and otherwise.

Answer 2

[Image Analyst]

Use questdlg():

promptMessage = sprintf('What do you want to do?');
titleBarCaption = 'Which Operation?';
buttonText = questdlg(promptMessage, titleBarCaption, 'Subtraction', 'Division', 'Quit', 'Subtraction');
if contains(buttonText, 'Quit')
  % Bail out.
  return;
elseif contains(buttonText, 'Subtraction')
  % Do your subtraction code.
else
  % Addition code...
end