Creating an array of structs and using the field directly?

Hey guys. I'm wondering if there is a workaround for doing something like this:

a = {[struct('field',1) struct('field',2)].field}

which works in octave but not in matlab ("invalid syntax at '.'. Possibly a ')', ']' or '}' is missing"), I have to use a temporary variable. This is quite annoying. Is there a workaround?

Thanks!

[Guillaume]

Note that this has nothing to do with with the fact that you're creating an array of structure. You're effectively doing

a = fn(someargs).field %where fn can be any function

which is illegal in matlab. Functions cannot be indexed using {} or . indexing.

Answer 1

[Andy Campbell]

Do you need it to be a one liner? If not:

    s = [struct('field',1) struct('field',2)];
    a = {s.field};

Otherwise you can use arrayfun, but this isnt the most readable.

    >> arrayfun(@(s) getfield(s,'field'), [struct('field',1) struct('field',2)])

    ans =

         1     2

    >> arrayfun(@(s) getfield(s,'field'), ...
           [struct('field',1) struct('field',2)], ...
           'UniformOutput',false)

    ans = 

        [1]    [2]