Handle class property inheriting value methods

Is there any way to create a handle class with the functionality of a value class, such that calling builtin methods of value classes would operate on a given Property? For example, let's say you have the class DataArray

classdef DataArray < handle
    properties
        Value
        Unit
    end
    
    methods
        function obj = DataArray(Value,Unit)
            obj.Value = Value;
            obj.Unit = Unit;
        end
    end
end

It would be very convenient to tell Matlab that any value methods (e.g. max, min, std...) should be applied to obj.Value without needing to explicitly define each method. Is there any way to accomplish this?

Answer 1

[BhaTTa]

Hi @Kevin S , you can immplement the value methods using manual delegation

For a few methods, you could manually implement the delegation by defining methods in your DataArray class that call the built-in functions on the Value property. Here's an example for max, min, and std:

classdef DataArray < handle
    properties
        Value
        Unit
    end
    
    methods
        function obj = DataArray(Value, Unit)
            obj.Value = Value;
            obj.Unit = Unit;
        end
        
        % Delegating max
        function result = max(obj)
            result = max(obj.Value);
        end
        
        % Delegating min
        function result = min(obj)
            result = min(obj.Value);
        end
        
        % Delegating std
        function result = std(obj)
            result = std(obj.Value);
        end
    end
end

you can call max on an instance of DataArray, like so:

dataArray = DataArray([1, 2, 3; 4, 5, 6], 'units');
maxValue = max(dataArray);