Question

I have written a script in MATLAB, where I am retrieving rows and columns from a table based on the WHERE clause. So far i manage to retrieve the data from the database table.

The problem is that i would like to allow the user to have the option of running another search to retrieve another set of data.

This is my code so far that i have and the script is called ‘searchpdb’.

pdbSearch = input('Enter your PDB Code: ', 's')
curs = fetch(exec(conn, ['SELECT * FROM cath_2_wo_dup WHERE pdbcode = ' '''' pdbSearch '''']));
fprintf('Results Successful! \n');
results = curs.Data % prints the data out

% ----------------------
% User option to search again
% -----------------------

goAgain = input('Would you like to search for another pdb?', 's');
% if (goAgain = 'Yes')
if strcmp(goAgain, 'Yes')
    searchpdb(); %runs this script again.
elseif strcmp(goAgain, 'No')
    fprintf('\nBye!\n');

end

I have tried using ‘questdlg’, but it does not show the results of the data in the table after i have given the option to the user to run again.

I am doing this the wrong way, or is there another efficient way of doing it? Should the option of running the script again be in another script ?

Answer 1

Well, it will work, but I would recommend using a while clause instead of calling the script recursively:

goAgain = true;
while goAgain
    pdbSearch = input('Enter your PDB Code: ', 's');
    curs = fetch(exec(conn, ['SELECT * FROM cath_2_wo_dup WHERE pdbcode = ' '''' pdbSearch '''']));
    fprintf('Results Successful! \n');
    results = curs.Data % prints the data out

    % ----------------------
    % User option to search again
    % -----------------------

    res = input('Would you like to search for another pdb?', 's');
    goAgain = isequal(upper(res),'YES');
end

It just becomes clearer for the reader of your code. Just by taking a look at the first lines of this new code, one can guess that:

1. There is a loop – something happens multiple times.
2. There is a stop condition called goAgain.