Is there any way to set time limit on a function?

I would like to stop a function if it did not finish after a specific time. Is there any way to do it in MATLAB?

[Jan]

Please add the important detail to the body of the question, that you want to stop an external program and not a Matlab function. Hiding this detail in a comment to an answer is misleading.

Answer 1

[Sean de Wolski]

Pass tic into the function and have it check toc periodically. If it exceeds, return or error.

Answer 2

[Adam]

You can use tic toc.

doc tic
doc toc

Just run with a while loop, extracting the toc value into a variable and testing that it is less than your chosen time in the while loop.

You could also use a timer object, but tic toc is simpler in this case I would think.

[Mohammad Farshchin]

Thank you very much for your response but the problem is that, in my function I have a line that executes an external program. So the code has to wait until the external program returns something. So it is not possible to use tic and toc.

[Adam]

So you want that external program to be cancelled when the time limit is up? In that case I'm not familiar enough with calling external programs to know how to terminate them early.

If the program is interruptible then it may be possible with a timer object using a callback though I don't know what the instructions would be.

Answer 3

[Jan]

How do you want to stop the external function? Is it possible to stop it in a regular way or do you have to kill the process in the hard way? The second method might leave some partially written output files and other junk on your computer.

You can start the external function using system('Program.exe &') and wait the wanted time. The exact procedure depends on how the external function can show, that it has finished and on your operating system. So please add more details in the body of your question - posting this as a comment is not optimal for the readers.