What is the Matlab install directory on 64bit or how to get it in Python?

Question

I have Matlab2013b on my system at :

C:\\Program Files\\MATLAB\\R2013b\\bin

I am writing Python script that searches for Matlab.exe first at this location and then at location for 64 bit. The Python script will be run on a server which might have a 64 bit instead of 32 bit. So, I need to search for both locations.
Since I don't have 64 bit version on my machine, I don't know the location.

I am speculating it will be:

C:\\Program Files (x86)\\MATLAB\\R2013b\\bin

But can anybody confirm that?
Thanks
sedy

Answer 1

You can read out the environment variable PATH (I'd say it's quite sure MATLAB it's included) and use some string operations to get the Matlab path:

import os
path = os.environ.get('path')
pathlist = path.split(';')
matlabpath = [s for s in pathlist if all(x in s for x in ['MATLAB','R','bin'])]
print(matlabpath)

this way you don't need to speculate what I would consider a generally bad programming practice.

---

In my case there is also an toolbox polyspace on the same path, you need to exclude that:

matlabpath = [s for s in pathlist if all(x in s for x in ['MATLAB','R','bin']) and not 'polyspace' in s]

There may be other toolboxes writing itself into path - it could be cumbersome to exclude all of them, so the easiest would be to just return the shortest of all Matlab related paths:

import os
path = os.environ.get('path')
pathlist = path.split(';')
matlabpath = min([s for s in pathlist if 'MATLAB' in s], key=len) 
print(matlabpath)