--- /dev/null
+## Copyright (C) 2005-2012 John W. Eaton
+##
+## This file is part of Octave.
+##
+## Octave is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
+## under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+## the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at
+## your option) any later version.
+##
+## Octave is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
+## WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+## MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
+## General Public License for more details.
+##
+## You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+## along with Octave; see the file COPYING. If not, see
+## <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+## -*- texinfo -*-
+## @deftypefn {Function File} {} isfigure (@var{h})
+## Return true if @var{h} is a graphics handle that contains a figure
+## object.
+## @seealso{ishandle}
+## @end deftypefn
+
+## Author: jwe
+
+function retval = isfigure (h)
+
+ if (nargin == 1)
+ retval = (ishandle (h) && strcmp (get (h, "type"), "figure"));
+ else
+ print_usage ();
+ endif
+
+endfunction
+
+%!test
+%! hf = figure ("visible", "off");
+%! unwind_protect
+%! assert (isfigure (hf));
+%! assert (!isfigure (-hf));
+%! unwind_protect_cleanup
+%! close (hf);
+%! end_unwind_protect