Can I store and call functions from within a struct?

Hi everyone,

i want to create a struct with the following fields: analysis(i).type (this is a list of different types of possible analysis) analysis(i).function (this should contain the specific function that should be executed, if a specific type of analysis was chosen)

I've tried some things so far, but nothing worked...so i'm wondering if this is even possible?

Thank you!

Answer 1

[Stephan]

Hi,

you can store function handles in a struct and use them like this:

fun1 = @(x,y) x + y
fun2 = @(x,y) x - y
analysis.add = fun1
analysis.subtract = fun2
res1 = analysis.add(1,2)
res2 = analysis.subtract(5,3)

Best regards

Stephan

[Stephen23]

Or assigning directly:

analysis.add      = @(x,y) x + y
analysis.subtract = @(x,y) x - y

[Stephan]

@Stephen you are always one step ahead ;-)

[Guillaume]

And if the function to execute is a m file (as opposed to anonnymous functions in Stephan and Stephen's example), then:

%store function handle to m file myfunc.m:
analysis.add = @myfunc

[Julian]

Thank you guys :)

Answer 2

[Hank]

To further this question, I would like to use fields of the struct as parameters in the functions, hopefully without having to write an entire class for this purpose.

for example

circ = struct('Radius',     3    ,...
              'Area',       @() pi*Radius^2 );

where 'radius' in the anon function somehow references circ.Radius

Then, radius may be change by other programs or the user action but whenever I access circ.Area, it references the current radius.

Cheers, Henry

[Guillaume]

Can you please start a new question of your own instead of writing it as an answer to somebody else's question?

[Hank]

Sure thing. Sorry, but it seemed like a related-enough addendum.

[Guillaume]

You can link to this question in your own. We can't answer an Answer, only comment on it. You can't accept a comment as resolving a question asked in an answer.

[Hank]

Fair enough. I think I've resolved that this can only be acheived by creating a class for the object i'm interested. There's no support of methods for a struct.