How can I call a function in a timer which was generated by the ImportData Tool?

Hello,

i created a timer function

function Timer

T= timer('ExecutionMode','fixedrate','TasksToExecute',10,'Period',10,...
    'TimerFcn',{@importfile,'XYZ.csv'});

start(T)

and want to call a function importfile which was generated by the ImportData Tool in Matlab

function [A,B,C,D,E] = importfile(filename, startRow, endRow)
%IMPORTFILE Import numeric data from a text file as column vectors.
%   [A,B,C,D,E] =
%   IMPORTFILE(FILENAME) Reads data from text file FILENAME for the default
%   selection.
%
%   [A,B,C,D,E] =
%   IMPORTFILE(FILENAME, STARTROW, ENDROW) Reads data from rows STARTROW
%   through ENDROW of text file FILENAME.
%
% Example:
%   [A,B,C,D,E] = importfile('XYZ.csv',1, 36);
%
%    See also TEXTSCAN.

% Auto-generated by MATLAB on 2016/11/22 11:39:19

%%Initialize variables.
delimiter = ',';
if nargin<=2
    startRow = 1;
    endRow = inf;
end

%%Format string for each line of text:
%   column1: text (%s)
%  column2: text (%s)
%   column3: double (%f)
%  column4: text (%s)
%   column5: double (%f)
% For more information, see the TEXTSCAN documentation.
formatSpec = '%s%s%f%s%f%[^\n\r]';

%%Open the text file.
fileID = fopen(filename,'r');

%%Read columns of data according to format string.
% This call is based on the structure of the file used to generate this
% code. If an error occurs for a different file, try regenerating the code
% from the Import Tool.
dataArray = textscan(fileID, formatSpec, endRow(1)-startRow(1)+1, 'Delimiter', delimiter, 'HeaderLines', startRow(1)-1, 'ReturnOnError', false);
for block=2:length(startRow)
    frewind(fileID);
    dataArrayBlock = textscan(fileID, formatSpec, endRow(block)-startRow(block)+1, 'Delimiter', delimiter, 'HeaderLines', startRow(block)-1, 'ReturnOnError', false);
    for col=1:length(dataArray)
        dataArray{col} = [dataArray{col};dataArrayBlock{col}];
    end
end

%%Close the text file.
fclose(fileID);

%%Post processing for unimportable data.
% No unimportable data rules were applied during the import, so no post
% processing code is included. To generate code which works for
% unimportable data, select unimportable cells in a file and regenerate the
% script.

%%Allocate imported array to column variable names
A = dataArray{:, 1};
B = dataArray{:, 2};
C = dataArray{:, 3};
D = dataArray{:, 4};
E = dataArray{:, 5};

When I run the Timer function I receive following error:

Error while evaluating TimerFcn for timer 'timer-30' 

First input must be a file name of type char, or a file identifier of type double.

What am I doing wrong? I would also like to have the Variables A,B,C,D,E in the workspace after running the Timer function.

Thanks for your help!

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

TimeFcn follows the standard of all callbacks: the first parameter passed to the callback is the object generating the callback, and the second parameter is a structure of data.

You should code

T= timer('ExecutionMode','fixedrate','TasksToExecute',10,'Period',10,...
  'TimerFcn',{@(src, event) importfile('XYZ.csv'));

[Roger Köhler]

Thanks! Now I don't receive an error anymore - but now is the question: How do i get the Variables A,B,C,D,E from the importfile function in the workspace? If I am running the Timer it just shows me the Timer Object in the workspace.