MATLAB: Oop: how to switch between passing by reference and value

handlesoop

Hi all,

i've a class that inherits the "handle" class, objects therefore always passed by reference. But now I want to copy an array of objects of this class such that i can modify the original and the copy seperately. Is there any easy way to be able to decide between copying and object and passing it by reference?

Thank you!

Best Answer

The documentation is pretty sparse, but also there: http://www.mathworks.co.uk/help/matlab/matlab_prog/copying-objects.html#brultwv

Copy Method for Handle Classes

Handle classes can derive copy functionality from the matlab.mixin.Copyable class. Class designers should investigate the use of this class in their class hierarchy design

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MATLAB: How to copy an object that is not a graphic one

In general, you would have to write a copy() method specific to the needs of your class. The copy() method would have to call the class constructor with suitable arguments to generate a copy.

If your class is sufficiently simple that a copy can be made just by dot-indexing all of the non-Dependent, public property values and writing them to a second object,

   objcopy.prop1 = obj.prop1;
   objcopy.prop2 = obj.prop2;
   etc...

then you can just use my attached copyprops() utility, which automates this.

MATLAB: Changing variable (properties in class) by method

Your class is a value class as opposed to a handle class. See this documentation page for a description of the differences between the two. The "Modifying Value Objects in Functions" and "Modifying Handle Objects in Functions" sections on that documentation page describe what happens when you modify properties of an instance of each kind of class in a function or method. So you can either:

Define the methods in your value class to return the modified object, and call the methods with the object as both input and output.
Change your class to a handle class.

Best Answer

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MATLAB: How to copy an object that is not a graphic one

MATLAB: Changing variable (properties in class) by method

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