MATLAB: Given an instance of a class (without knowing class name), how to call the constructor

constructorinheritanceoop

I have made a minimal example trying to implement a clone method
classdef Person
    properties
        name;
        id;
    end
    methods
        % Constructor

        function person = Person(name)
            person.name = name;
            person.id = Person.getID(); 
        end
        
        % simple function
        function name = getName(person)
            name = person.name;
        end
        
        % Simple method where Constructor is called
        function person = clone(person)
            %want to call Constructor so even clones get unique ID
            person = Person(person.name);
        end
    end
    methods (Static)
        %assign personal id (simplified version)
        function id = getID()
            persistent max_personal_id;
            if(isempty(max_personal_id))
                max_personal_id = 0;
            end
            max_personal_id = max_personal_id+1;
            id = max_personal_id;
        end
    end
end
Now I try to extend the class to another class with same constructor arguments, without having to reimplement the clone method
classdef FireMan < Person
    methods
        % Constructor
        function person = FireMan(name)
            person@Person(name);
        end
        
        function name = getName(person)
            name = ['FireMan ',person.name];
        end
    end
end
But this does not give wanted functionality of the clone method as it
p = FireMan('Sam');
p.getName()
ans =
    'FireMan Sam'
p.clone.getName()
ans =
    'Sam'
This happens of course because I call the Person constructer in the clone method and not the Fireman Constructor
I could of course add something like this to every subclass.
function person = construct(~,name)
    person = FireMan(name);
end
But I wonder if I could avoid changes in the subclass.

Best Answer

Might you be interested in inheriting from matlab.mixin.Copyable which gives you a copy method?
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