For example I have a 1*30 structure a.field, when I type a(:).field in command window it just iteratively display a(1).field, a(2).field,... However, when I was trying to assign a(:).field to another variable b, what b get is just a(1).field.
BTW, if I attampt to pass a(:).field to a function, Matlab just throws an error "too many input arguments".
What is the mechanism behind? My guess is that matlab threat colon equivlant to the first element during assignment, is that true?
You need to add brackets, otherwise matlab don't understand that your trying to store an array:
b = [a(:).field]
Another option that provide similar result:
b = horzcat(a(:).field)
Related
Say I have a class subclassing double, and I want to add a string (Similar to the 'extendDouble' in the documentation). Is there an easy way to access the actual numeric value without the extra properties, particular for reassigning? Or if I want to change the value, will I have to recreate the value as a new member of the class with the new value and the same string?
e.g.
classdef myDouble < double
properties
string
end
methods
function obj = myDouble(s)
% Construct object (simplified)
obj.string = s;
end
end
end
----------
x = myDouble(2,'string')
x =
2 string
x = 3
x =
3 string
Short answer: NO. There is no easy way to access a single member of a class when the class contains more than one member. You'll always have to let MATLAB know which part of the class you want to manipulate.
You have multiple questions in your post but let's tackle the most interesting one first:
% you'd like to instanciate a new class this way (fine)
x = myDouble(2,'string')
x =
2 string
% then you'd like to easily refer to the only numeric part of your class
% for assignment => This can NEVER work in MATLAB.
x = 3
x =
3 string
This can never work in MATLAB because of how the interpreter works. Consider the following statements:
% direct assignment
(1) dummy = 3
% indexed assignments
(2) dummy(1) = 3
(3) dummy{1} = 3
(4) dummy.somefieldname = 3
You would like the simplicity of the first statement for assignment, but this is the one we cannot achieve. The statement 2, 3 and 4 are all possible with some fiddling with subasgn and subsref.
The main difference between (1) and [2,3,4] is this:
Direct assignment:
In MATLAB, when you execute a direct assignment to a simple variable name (without indexing with () or {} or a field name) like dummy=3, MATLAB does not check the type of dummy beforehand, in fact it does not even check whether the variable dummy exists at all. No, with this kind of assignment, MATLAB goes the quickest way, it immediately create a new variable dummy and assign it the type and value accordingly. If a variable dummy existed before, too bad for it, that one is lost forever (and a lot of MATLAB users have had their fingers bitten once or twice by this behavior actually as it is an easy mistake to overwrite a variable and MATLAB will not raise any warning or complaint)
Indexed assignments:
In all the other cases, something different happens. When you execute dummy(1)=3, you are not telling MATLAB "create a new dummy variable with that value", you are telling MATLAB, "find the existing dummy variable, find the existing subindex I am telling you, then assign the value to that specific subindex". MATLAB will happlily go on, if it finds everything it does the sub-assignment, or it might complains/error about any kind of misassignment (wrong index, type mismatch, indices length mismatch...).
To find the subindex, MATLAB will call the subassgn method of dummy. If dummy is a built-in class, the subassgn method is also built in and usually under the hood, if dummy is a custom class, then you can write your own subassgn and have full control on how MATLAB will treat the assignment. You can check for the type of the input and decide to apply to this field or another if it's more suitable. You can even do some range check and reject the assignment altogether if it is not suitable, or just assign a default value. You have full control, MATLAB will not force you to anything in your own subassgn.
The problem is, to trigger MATLAB to relinquish control and give the hand to your own subassgn, you have to use an indexed assignment (like [2,3 or 4] above). You cannot do that with type (1) assignment.
Other considerations: You also ask if you can change the numeric part of the class without creating a new object. The answer to that is no as well. This is because of the way value classes work in matlab. There could be a long explanation of what happens under the hood, but the best example is from the MATLAB example you referenced yourself. If we look at the class definition of ExtendDouble, then observe the custom subassgn method which will perform the change of numeric value, what happens there is:
obj = ExtendDouble(b,obj.DataString);
So even Mathworks, to change the numeric value of their extended double class, have to recreate a brand new one (with a new numeric value b, and transfering the old string value obj.DataString).
I have a script Function.m such that for example, when I write TEST=Function(1,2), I have TEST.x1=4 and TEST.x2=[5,6,7]. I want to use fsolve to help me find input. To be precise, I want to define a function, say a=#(y)Function(1,y)-4 so that when I use [z,vector]=fsolve(#(y)a(y),5), matlab can help me to obtain z=2 and vector=[5,6,7].
I would like to solve it by defining the same structure New_Function.m as Function.m such that it returns x1 values, i.e., TEST=New_Function(1,2) gives TEST=4 only. Then I write new_a=#(y)New_Function(1,y)-4 and solve z=fsolve(#(y)new_a(y),5) and define new_vector=Function(1,z) so that I can access new_vector.x2.
I want to know if it is possible to do my task without defining a new script or amending the content in the existing script. How to write code?
Since Matlab does not allow further referencing the result of a function call, you may need to help yourself with getfield. In your example (provided I got it right), it would be something like New_Func = #(y) getfield(Function(1,y),'x1'). This would take one scalar and return one scalar, i.e., New_Func(y) gives the field value of the struct returned by Function(1,y) associated to the field x1.
I ran a quick test to see how if deals with multiple input values. It appears that the default behavior is to apply and to the collection of values, but I couldn't find any documentation. Can anyone confirm or provide a counterexample?
>> if([1,1,1]) disp(sprintf('hi'));end;
hi
>> if([1]) disp(sprintf('hi'));end;
hi
>> if([1,1,0]) disp(sprintf('hi'));end;
EDIT: to clarify, I don't intend to try to use this "feature," but wanted to be sure I knew how erroneous input would be handled. Suppose, for example, your code read
if(my_function) and the (badly written) my_function usually returns a single value but occasionally returns multiple values. Good practice, of course , would parse the returned values appropriately and feed a single value to if.
I don't find any practical reason to create an if statement which depends on anything but a scalar.
Regarding what's done in MATLAB practically?
You may assume MATLAB applies the function all on the input of the if statement.
This will hold as intuition given the array is non empty.
For example, if we have array - array4Example which is not empty, the statement if on the array - if(array4Example) is equivalent of the statement if on the scalar - if(all(array4Example(:))).
This matches the documentation if the if function.
Is there an idiomatic way in Matlab to bind the value of an expression to the nth return value of another expression?
For example, say I want an array of indices corresponding to the maximum value of a number of vectors stored in a cell array. I can do that by
function I = max_index(varargin)
[~,I]=max(varargin{:});
cellfun(#max_index, my_data);
But this requires one to define a function (max_index) specific for each case one wants to select a particular return value in an expression. I can of course define a generic function that does what I want:
function y = nth_return(n,fun,varargin)
[vals{1:n}] = fun(varargin{:});
y = vals{n};
And call it like:
cellfun(#(x) nth_return(2,#max,x), my_data)
Adding such functions, however, makes code snippets less portable and harder to understand. Is there an idiomatic to achieve the same result without having to rely on the custom nth_return function?
This is as far as I know not possible in another way as with the solutions you mention. So just use the syntax:
[~,I]=max(var);
Or indeed create an extra function. But I would also suggest against this. Just write the extra line of code, in case you want to use the output in another function. I found two earlier questions on stackoverflow, which adress the same topic, and seem to confirm that this is not possible.
Skipping outputs with anonymous function in MATLAB
How to elegantly ignore some return values of a MATLAB function?
The reason why the ~ operator was added to MATLAB some versions ago was to prevent you from saving variables you do not need. If there would be a syntax like the one you are searching for, this would not have been necessary.
I have a function that returns two values, like so:
[a b] = myfunc(x)
Is there a way to get the second return value without using a temporary variable, and without altering the function?
What I'm looking for is something like this:
abs(secondreturnvalue(myfunc(x)))
not that i know of. subsref doesn't seem to work in this case, possibly because the second variable isn't even returned from the function.
since matlab 2009b it is possible to use the notation
[~, b] = function(x)
if you don't need the first argument, but this still uses a temporary variable for b.
Unless there is some pressing need to do this, I would probably advise against it. The clarity of your code will suffer. Storing the outputs in temporary variables and then passing these variables to another function will make your code cleaner, and the different ways you could do this are outlined here: How to elegantly ignore some return values of a MATLAB function?.
However, if you really want or need to do this, the only feasible way I can think of would be to create your own function secondreturnvalue. Here's a more general example called nth_output:
function value = nth_output(N,fcn,varargin)
[value{1:N}] = fcn(varargin{:});
value = value{N};
end
And you would call it by passing as inputs 1) the output argument number you want, 2) a function handle to myfunc, and 3) whatever input arguments you need to pass to myfunc:
abs(nth_output(2,#myfunc,x))