Keep Matlab from stepping into built in functions during dbstop if error

Question

I use dbstop error a lot when working in Matlab. A good portion of the time, a mistake causes errors to be thrown inside of built-in [m-file] functions, which then causes Matlab to stop execution and open the file. However, it's almost never helpful to debug inside of the built-in file, so this ends up disrupting my workflow. Might there be a way to set things up so that Matlab backs out of the built-in file in the debugger (never opening it), leaving me at the function call?

Answer 1

Although I've never found a way to tackle this problem properly, it's fairly easy to hack together a workaround:

1. Create a script containing something along these lines:

   S = dbstack();
   
   file_paths  = cellfun(@which, {S.file}, 'UniformOutput', false);
   builtins    = ~cellfun('isempty', strfind(file_paths, matlabroot()));
   stack_depth = find(~builtins, 1, 'first');
   
   for ii = 1:stack_depth-1
       dbup(); end
   

2. Save it somewhere that makes sense to you, and place a shortcut to it in the MATLAB toolbar.

Then, whenever this problem occurs, you just click on your little shortcut, which will automatically take you to the first non-builtin function in the debug stack.