Algorithm (Workflow)

This MATLAB function, mdfind, is designed to perform a file search on macOS using the Spotlight search feature via the terminal command mdfind. The function is part of the SolidGeometry library and was introduced in version 5.3.

Input Parameters

• varargin: A variable-length input argument list. Each element in varargin is a string that represents a search term or parameter for the mdfind command.

Output

• b: A cell array containing the results of the Spotlight search. Each element is a file path that matches the search criteria.

Algorithm Steps

1. Initialize a string txt with the value 'mdfind'.
2. Iterate over each input argument in varargin and append it to txt with a space separator. This constructs the full command to be executed in the terminal.
3. Execute the constructed command using the system function, which runs the command in the macOS terminal. The output is captured in b.
4. Split the output b into separate lines using splitlines.
5. Filter the lines in b to include only those that contain a forward slash '/', which indicates a file path.
6. If no output argument is specified (i.e., nargout == 0), convert the file paths in b to hyperlinks using the strhyperlinkmatlab function with the 'open' option.