Suppressing ans in a function

function encStr = encrypt(s,key);
prompt='Enter message to be encrypted: ';
s=input(prompt,'s');
key=input('Enter the key: ');
encStr=char(s+key);
fprintf('The encrypted message is: %s\n',encStr);
end

Hi this is my function above. I don't want to see an ans when I apply this function. I searched it online but most of the answers says that I should get rid of encStr in the function but I must use this format. Can you help me?

Thanks!

Answer 1

[Stephen23]

To avoid the ans you must use a semi-colon when you call the function:

str = encrypt(...);
%                 ^ you need this semicolon!

[Omer Acil]

Is there anything I can do in editor because when I present this code user may not know that he/she should use semi-colon to suppress it

[Stephen23]

"...user may not know that he/she should use semi-colon to suppress it"

Because all variable assignments and function outputs are displayed by default, one of the first things that beginners learn about MATLAB is how to suppress those using a semi-colon.

It is certainly possible to define the function to return no output argument when no output is requested, e.g.:

function out = encrypt(...)
...
if nargout>0
    out = encStr;
end
end

but as soon as the user assigns the output to a variable they will need to use a semi-colon to supress displaying it. That is just how MATLAB works. I would recommend that you do NOT mess around with output arguments, as this just results in less predictable function behavior (ultimately your users just have to learn how MATLAB works).

[Omer Acil]

Thank you so much for your time