Using return like that is completely appropriate for what you want to do, but you must make sure all of your function's outputs are defined when the function returns. The second output may not be used in case the first one is false or 0, but the second one has to have a value anyway.
[result1,result2] = my_function([])
function [logical_out,terminal_coordinatetimes] = my_function(subject_in_feeder)
logical_out = ~isempty(subject_in_feeder);
% don't need further analysis if output is 0
if logical_out == 0
% have to return some value for terminal_coordinatetimes
terminal_coordinatetimes = [];
return
end
% further analysis
terminal_coordinatetimes = [subject_in_feeder.coordinatetimes(1), ...
subject_in_feeder.coordinatetimes(end)]';
end
