Method does not update the current object MATLAB - matlab

Question

I'm writing a code using Matlab OO programming. I came across a problem trying to write a method that changes the value of a matrix inside the same object.
I've tested my method and it does exactly what I want it to do but it does not save back the results.
Here is my code:
Take a look on : function obj = initCC(obj)
%% searchDat picks values for the object properties in a fite
%% Importa a função searchDat()
%%
classdef methExpl
%Classe de Metodos Explicitos
% Detailed explanation goes here
properties
%Declara Altura da Placa, Largura, Nós em X, Nós em Y, K, Matriz
%com a solução do passo atual, matriz com a solução do passo
%Variáveis Geométricas
%Altura e Largura
Height
Length
%Variáveis da Malha
%Número de nós em X e Número de nós em Y
%Passo de tempo
NodeX
NodeY
timeStep
%Propriedades Físicas
%Condutividade Térmica, Temperatura no Contorno
%Temperatura Inicial uniforme na chapa
kTerm
boundaryTemp
initTemp
%Soluções parciais
%Matriz com a solução da iteração atual
%Matriz com a solução da iteração passada
curMat
lastMat
end
properties (SetAccess = private)
%Arma
funTermMAT
erro = {}
end
methods
function obj = methExpl()
%Construtor da Classe
%Inicializa as variaveis com os valores no arquivo input.dat
%Inicializa a matriz
obj.Height = searchDat('[Height]','input.dat');
obj.Length = searchDat('[Length]','input.dat');
obj.NodeX = searchDat('[NodesX]','input.dat');
obj.NodeY = searchDat('[NodesY]','input.dat');
obj.kTerm = searchDat('[ThermalConductivity]','input.dat');
obj.boundaryTemp = searchDat('[BoundaryTemperature]','input.dat');
obj.initTemp = searchDat('[InitalTemperature]','input.dat');
obj.curMat = zeros(obj.NodeX,obj.NodeY);
%inicializa a matriz com a temperatura do contorno:
obj.initCC();
obj.lastMat = zeros(obj.NodeX,obj.NodeY);
end
function obj = initCC(obj)
%initCC Inicializa a matriz com a condição de contorno de
%temperatura
lim = size(obj.curMat);
for (i =1 : lim(1))
for (j = 1 : lim(2))
if (i==1) || (i == lim(1))
obj.curMat(i,j) = obj.boundaryTemp;
elseif (j==1) || (j ==lim(2))
obj.curMat(i,j) = obj.boundaryTemp
end
end
end
obj.curMat
end
end
end
Before quitting the initCC and get:
ans =
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3
3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3
3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3
3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3
3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3
3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3
3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3
3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3
3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
Which is exactly what I want.
If I call it from the outside after initializing it I get:
ans =
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
As if the result of the method I have created has been destroyed.

Answer 1

Just to put expand on the suggestions in the comments, you basically have two options. Firstly, you could simply capture the return of your initCC method which does correctly return the modified object, like so:
myObj = initCC(myObj);
Note that because of MATLAB's "copy on write" behaviour, this does not in fact incur any expensive copies of data.
The other option is to declare your class to be a handle, like so:
classdef methExpl < handle
...
end
then you don't need the return from initCC.