Why are the values passed to a method saved as an object? - matlab

Question

I have a class with a scheduler function that is supposed to insert characters into a cell array:
classdef timeline < handle
properties
schedule
i
%other properties
end
methods
%other functions
function t = timeline()
%other initializations
t.schedule = cell(1,738);
t.i = 1;
end
function scheduler(t, g, fT)
if nargin == 2
fT = t.i;
end
if strcmp(g,'science')
'science' % eclipse occurs after
for j = (fT+t.sTime+1) : (fT+t.sTime+1+t.eTime)
t.schedule{j} = 'e';
end
elseif strcmp(g,'pass')
'pass' % science occurs 2 hrs after end
for j = (fT) : (fT+t.pTime)
t.schedule{j} = 'p'
end
for j = (fT+t.pTime+121) : (fT+t.pTime+120+t.sTime)
t.schedule{j} = 's';
end
scheduler(t, 'science', fT+t.pTime+120);
end
end
end
end
In the command window, I define my object t = timeline() and a mode g = 'pass' and then call the scheduler, t.scheduler(t,g).
It doesn't change the schedule property. What's going on inside the if statements to write the schedule isn't the problem I am concerned with. I put outputs in each part of the if statement, and found that strcmp is returning false and skipping over the whole block. So, I added a break point in the scheduler function, and found that for some reason g is passed to the function as another timeline object instead of the string 'pass'. Why is this?

Answer 1

When you call a method for an object you can use dot notation or function notation. Dot notation means you call the method using the dot operator on the object instance. For example,
obj.methodName(args);
In function notation you pass the object instance variable as the first argument to the method. For example,
methodName(obj, args);
Both the above calls are equivalent and call the same method in the object. In both the calls MATLAB passes obj as input to the method. Note the absence of obj as an argument in the dot notation. In dot notation obj, is added as an input argument before your args. In your code you are mixing both of these options. So you got two obj arguments for your method.
Relevant documentation is at http://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/matlab_oop/method-invocation.html