How to save results to /results *only if* code is being executed on Code Ocean

On Code Ocean, files need to be saved explicitly to /results  to be visible as results. 

When you export a capsule, it will typically come with a /results folder inside the exported folder. However, some users may not wish to have a new folder created for them (if, say, they are downloading the code and data separately rather than exporting the capsule as a whole) -- and their local workflow may be to just wait for figures to pop up in their IDE or terminal.

For these use cases, you can use either shell scripting or MATLAB syntax.

Shell:

DIRECTORY='../results'
if [ -d "$DIRECTORY" ]; then
  # run your code
  # save your figure
fi

MATLAB:

After generating your figure, you'd run something like

if ~usejava('desktop') saveas(gcf,'../results/figure1.pdf') end

If you have other languages you'd like to see syntax for, please let us know via live chat or an email to support@codeocean.com, and we'll amend this article accordingly.