It is quite common to detect how many input arguments have been passed to a function, using nargin (N arguments in). Commonly used to set defaults for arguments not specified.

function result = fun_name(a,b,c);
  if nargin <1
    error('a must be supplied');
  end
  if nargin <2
    b = 1; 
  end
  if nargin <3
    c = 1;
  end

  % ...

However I just discovered nargout (N arguments out(.

This allows the scripts to differentiate between:

x     = fun(a)
[x,y] = fun(a)

Example 1:

function [ varargout ] = nargout_test( input_args )
  disp(['nargout : ', num2str(nargout)])
 
  % Set outputs
  for i=1:nargout
    varargout{i} = 0;
  end
end

Example 2, changing input args usage based on number of outputs: note the input keyword change to the input arguments varargin Variable argument in.

function [ varargout ] = nargout_test( varargin )
  disp(['nargin : ', num2str(nargin)])
  disp(['nargout : ', num2str(nargout)])
 
  if nargout > 2
    error('Too many output arguments')
  end
 
  if nargout == 1
    % single output first input means something
    varargout{1} = varargin{1};
  end
 
  if nargout == 2
    % two outputs first input means some thing else
    varargout{1} = varargin{1} / varargin{2};
    varargout{2} = varargin{1} * varargin{2};
  end
 
end

A good example is the dcblock script by J M De Freitas.

Which has this syntax:

% SYNTAX    [a] = dcblock(Fc);  
%           [a] = dcblock(fc,fs);  
%           [aQ] = dcblock(fc,fs,B);  
%           [Fc,fc] = dcblock(a,fs);  
%           dcblock(Fc)  
%           dcblock(fc,fs)  
%           dcblock(fc,fs,B)