MATLAB: Lookup tables in Matlab

lookup tableMATLAB

Dear All,
I want to use lookup tables in Matlab to replace computation of complicated functional relations. The goal is to speed up computations. In the SIMULINK environment, I found a set of tools that perfectly matches my needs: the blocks '1-D lookup table', '2-D lookup table', 'Prelookup' etc.
My questions are: – Is a comparable set of tools or functions available in MATLAB? So far I have found approaches using interp1. Is this the fastest approach or are there better ways? And: So far I have not found a way to pass to interp1 the index of the previous search as search entry point (which speeds up things when changes between calls are small). – Can I use the mentioned SIMULINK blocks in Matlab? And if yes: how, and will it makes sense if computational speed is an issue?
Uwe
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