(Originally posted on Doug's MATLAB Video Tutorials blog.)

Most MATLAB functions are overloaded. That means that there are several ways to call them and that MATLAB will "Do The Right Thing" based on the number and types of inputs. As a simple example you can call SUM.

sum(M) % this will sum along the columns

sum(M,2) % this will sum along the rows

This video shows how you can implement the same behavior based on using VARARGIN: VARiable ARGuments IN NARGIN: Number ARGuments IN

Other videos have been gathered here: File Exchange Pick of the Week: Video. Other Advanced MATLAB posts have been gathered here: File Exchange Pick of the Week: Advanced MATLAB.