Question

I am trying to find a nice solution for the following situation:

I have a class:

classdef SomeClass < handle

    properties (Access = private)
        x
    end

    methods
        function x = getX(this)
            x = this.x;
        end
    end
end

Let x – some data array.
Do I have a possibility to address some element of array like I’d make it in struct:

struct.x(5)

Or do I always have to do like this?:

myClassObj = SomeClass();
x = myClassObj.getX();
x(5)

or create some func getXAt?

Answer 1

Yes. Addressing like that is the normal behavior of a property in a Matlab object. You can just expose the property for reading instead of making it fully private.

classdef SomeClass < handle

    properties (SetAccess=private)
        x
    end

    methods
        function obj = SomeClass(x)
            obj.x = x;
        end
    end
end

Then you can address it like a field on a struct.

>> sc = SomeClass(1:7);
>> sc.x(5)
ans =
     5
>> 

There’s no need in Matlab to always make your own accessor functions like you would in Java. You can independently control the read and write access of a property using attributes on it. If you want more complex property access logic, you can define getters and setters using the special function out = get.x(obj) syntax, and their behavior will apply to property access done with the obj.x syntax.