How do I write a function that behaves differently according to the number of input arguments?

First, is it possible to write a function that variably accepts some number of arguments? (It should be possible since to create objects, you often call functions and specify a variable number of properties that you wish to initialize).

Secondly, how do you count the number of arguments? Are arguments received as strings?

Answer 1

[Steven Lord]

Take a look at VARARGIN, NARGIN, and NARGINCHK.

Answer 2

[Thorsten]

Use varargin as the parameter of your function that collects all arguments as elements of a cell array.

 function myplot(varargin)
 %number of arguments
 numel(varargin)
 % first argument
 varargin{1}

You can use other arguments in front of varargin.

 function myplot(x, y, varargin)