How do I interact with MATLAB from Python?

Question

A friend asked me about creating a small web interface that accepts some inputs, sends them to MATLAB for number crunching and outputs the results. I'm a Python/Django developer by trade, so I can handle the web interface, but I am clueless when it comes to MATLAB. Specifically:

• I'd really like to avoid hosting this on a Windows server. Any issues getting MATLAB running in Linux with scripts created on Windows?
• Should I be looking into shelling out commands or compiling it to C and using ctypes to interact with it?
• If compiling is the way to go, is there anything I should know about getting it compiled and working in Python? (It's been a long time since I've compiled or worked with C)

Any suggestions, tips, or tricks on how to pull this off?

Answer 1

There is a python-matlab bridge which is unique in the sense that Matlab runs in the background as a server so you don't have the startup cost each time you call a Matlab function.

it's as easy as downloading and the following code:

from pymatbridge import Matlab mlab = Matlab(matlab='/Applications/MATLAB_R2011a.app/bin/matlab') mlab.start() res = mlab.run('path/to/yourfunc.m', {'arg1': 3, 'arg2': 5}) print res['result'] 

where the contents of yourfunc.m would be something like this:

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

Answer 2

Take a look at mlabwrap which allows you to call Matlab via a python API