A simple interface to allow Python to call MATLAB functions.

Unlike other interfaces, MATLAB only has to start once. All communication is done over a TCP server (credit to D.Kroon University of Twente for the TCP server).

This has not been tested on Windows.

Initialize the Matlab class. You must pass in your matlab executable, e.g.

from pymatbridge import Matlab
mlab = Matlab(matlab='/Applications/MATLAB_R2011a.app/bin/matlab')

By default the host is localhost and the port is 4000. This can be changed, e.g.

mlab = Matlab(matlab='/Applications/MATLAB_R2011a.app/bin/matlab',
                host='192.168.0.1', port=5151)

You must then start the MATLAB server:

mlab.start()

which will return True once connected.

You can then run any local MATLAB function contained within a .m file of the same name. For example, to call the function jk in jk.m:

%% MATLAB
function lol = jk(args)
    arg1 = args.arg1;
    arg2 = args.arg2;
    lol = arg1 + arg2;
end

by calling:

res = mlab.run('path/to/jk.m', {'arg1': 3, 'arg2': 5})
print res['result']

which will print 8.

You can shut down the MATLAB server by calling

mlab.stop()

NB: you can call MATLAB code before the server starts by adding code to the ./matlab/startup.m file.

An example MATLAB function and usage from Python is shown in test.py and test.m and you can also see a Notebook using the Plotly MATLAB API.

• MATLAB error handling.
• Multiple simultaneous connections.

Max Jaderberg 2012