checking for colon operator in MATLAB grader

In the very first part of a course, I want to check that students are using the colon operator to create a simple vector. I've tried the following:

assessFunctionPresence(:)

assessFunctionPresence(':')

but neither seem to work.

Does anyone know if this can be done, and if so, how?

[Voss]

Have you tried this?

assessFunctionPresence('colon')

I'm not familiar with MATLAB grader, so I can't say for sure that will work, but colon is the colon operator:

colon(1,5)

ans = 1×5

1 2 3 4 5

[James Wiles]

I hadn't, but I have now and it doesn't work. Thanks anyway though, should have tried that.

[Dyuman Joshi]

You can try using assert()

Answer 1

[Cris LaPierre]

MATLAB Grader does not have a built-in way to check for the use of operators (see this related question).

You might try combining the assessment of their variable values with banning the use of other matrix creation functions (e.g. linspace).

Consider looking at the Vector Creation (creating equally spaced vectors) sample problem in Sample Problems From MathWorks > Introduction to Programming > Matrices & Operators. It's the 2nd problem.

[James Wiles]

OK Great, thanks for your help :)

[Cris LaPierre]

If you don't yet have access to the full catalog of sample problems, please reach out to your Mathworks representative. Access is limited to verified instructors.