In Octave, `clear *' removes all variables and functions from the current workspace.

In Matlab (R2012a) `clear *' removes variables but not functions.


Similarly, if we assume that a function `g' is defined:

In Octave, both `clear g' and `clear g*' delete `g'.

In Matlab (R2012a), `clear g' deletes `g' but `clear g*' leaves `g' untouched.


The same is true for `?'.


As a general rule for describing this, I would say that `clear PATTERN' only affects variables (not functions), except for the special where 1) PATTERN contains no wildcards, and 2) PATTERN is not a variable name, in which case `clear PATTERN' can be seen as a shortcut for `clear functions PATTERN'.


I don't know if the is true in the most recent release of Matlab (R2013a) since the documentation of `clear' does not mention wildcards any more:

http://www.mathworks.fr/fr/help/matlab/ref/clear.html
http://www.mathworks.fr/fr/help/matlab/ref/clearvars.html