Property Attributes

Purpose of Property Attributes

Specifying attributes in the class definition enables you to customize the behavior of properties for specific purposes. Control characteristics like access, data storage, and visibility of properties by setting attributes. Subclasses do not inherit superclass member attributes.

Specifying Property Attributes

Assign property attributes on the same line as the properties keyword:

properties (Attribute1 = value1, Attribute2 = value2,...)
   ...
end

For example, give the Data property private access:

properties (Access = private)
   Data
end

For more information on attribute syntax, see Attribute Specification.

Table of Property Attributes

All properties support the attributes listed in the following table. Attribute values apply to all properties defined within the properties...end code block that specifies the nondefault values.

Property Attributes

Attribute Name	Class	Description
`AbortSet`	logical default = `false`	If `true`, MATLAB^® does not set the property value if the new value is the same as the current value. MATLAB does not call the property set method, if one exists. For handle classes, setting `AbortSet` to `true` also prevent the triggering of property `PreSet` and `PostSet` events. See Assignment When Property Value Is Unchanged
`Abstract`	logical default = `false`	If `true`, the property has no implementation, but a concrete subclass must redefine this property without `Abstract` being set to `true`. Abstract properties cannot define set or get access methods. See Property Access Methods. Abstract properties cannot define initial values. See Assigning a Default Value. All subclasses must specify the same values as the superclass for the property `SetAccess` and `GetAccess` attributes. `Abstract=true` use with the class attribute `Sealed=false` (the default).
`Access` (write-only, cannot query this `meta.property` property. Use `GetAccess` and `SetAccess` in queries.)	enumeration, default = `public` `meta.class` object cell array of `meta.class` objects	Use `Access` to set both `SetAccess` and `GetAccess` to the same value. Query the values of `SetAccess` and `GetAccess` directly (not `Access`). `public` – unrestricted access `protected` – access from class or subclasses `private` – access by class members only (not subclasses) List of classes that have get and set access to this property. Specify classes as `meta.class` objects in the form: A single `meta.class` object A cell array of `meta.class` objects. An empty cell array, `{}`, is the same as `private` access. See Class Members Access
`Constant`	logical default = `false`	Set to `true` if you want only one value for this property in all instances of the class: Subclasses inherit constant properties, but cannot change them. `Constant` properties cannot be `Dependent`. `SetAccess` is ignored. See Define Class Properties with Constant Values for more information.
`Dependent`	logical default = `false`	If `false`, property value is stored in object. If `true`, property value is not stored in object. The set and get functions cannot access the property by indexing into the object using the property name. MATLAB does not display in the command window the names and values of `Dependent` properties that do not define a get method (scalar object display only). Values returned by dependent property get methods are not considered when testing for object equality using `isequal`. Calculate Data on Demand Property Get Methods Avoid Property Initialization Order Dependency
`GetAccess`	enumeration default = `public`	`public` — unrestricted access `protected` — access from class or subclasses `private` — access by class members only (not from subclasses) List classes that have get access to this property. Specify classes as `meta.class` objects in the form: A single `meta.class` object A cell array of `meta.class` objects. An empty cell array, `{}`, is the same as `private` access. See Class Members Access MATLAB does not display in the command window the names and values of properties having `protected` or `private` `GetAccess` or properties whose `Hidden` attribute is `true`. The `struct` function defines fields for all properties when converting objects to `structs`.
`GetObservable`	logical default = `false`	If `true`, and it is a handle class property, then you can create listeners for access to this property. The listeners are called whenever property values are queried. See Property-Set and Query Events
`Hidden`	logical default = `false`	Determines if the property can be shown in a property list (e.g., Property Inspector, call to `set` or `get`, etc.). MATLAB does not display in the command window the names and values of properties whose `Hidden` attribute is `true` or properties having `protected` or `private` `GetAccess`.
`NonCopyable`	logical default = `false`	Determine if property value can be copied when object is copied. You can set `NonCopyable` to `true` only in handle classes. For more information, see Exclude Properties from Copy
`SetAccess`	enumeration default = `public`	`public` — unrestricted access `protected` — access from class or subclasses `private` — access by class members only (not from subclasses) `immutable` — property can be set only in the constructor. See Mutable and Immutable Properties List classes that have set access to this property. Specify classes as `meta.class` objects in the form: A single `meta.class` object A cell array of `meta.class` objects. An empty cell array, `{}`, is the same as `private` access. See Class Members Access
`SetObservable`	logical default = `false`	If `true`, and it is a handle class property, then you can create listeners for access to this property. The listeners are called whenever property values are modified. See Property-Set and Query Events
`Transient`	logical default = `false`	If `true`, property value is not saved when object is saved to a file. See Save and Load Process for Objects for more about saving objects.
Framework attributes	Classes that use certain framework base classes have framework-specific attributes. See the documentation for the specific base class you are using for information on these attributes.