Are nested classes possible?

Is it possible to have a nested class, that's only available to the class that it created?

For example I would say in my workspace(/example/):

>> phone = device
??? Undefined function or variable 'setting'.

But then i get this error. The used paths and code:

/example/@device/device.m
/example/@device/@setting/setting.m

device.m:

classdef device

      properties
          name
          owner
          settings = setting
      end

end

setting.m:

classdef setting

      properties
          firmware
          password
          ringtone
      end

end

Answer 1

[Matt Landow*]

easy fix

just have setting instead of settings.

classdef device

        properties
            name
            owner
            setting
        end

end

then you can do calls like, device.setting.firmware=[1 2 3 4 5];

[Vincent]

Thanks, it works then indeed that I can do calls like that. But then the setting is not of a class setting, but a normal struct. Then it is still possible to make typos. So I'm looking how to make class again.

>> phone=device

phone =

device

Properties:

name: []

owner: []

setting: []

Methods

>> class(phone.setting)

ans =

double

>> phone.setting.firmware = '1.1a'

phone =

device

Properties:

name: []

owner: []

setting: [1x1 struct]

Methods

>> phone.setting.dummy = 'should not be possible'

phone =

device

Properties:

name: []

owner: []

setting: [1x1 struct]

Methods

>> phone.setting

ans =

firmware: '1.1a'

dummy: 'should not be possible'

Answer 2

[Daniel Shub]

You cannot define a class in a private folder:

<http://www.mathworks.com/help/releases/R2011a/techdoc/matlab_oop/brfynrp-1.html >

and therefore it seems unlikely you can make a truly private class. If you are just trying to avoid namespace conflicts you can use a package href=""<http://www.mathworks.com/help/releases/R2011a/techdoc/matlab_oop/brfynt_-1.html</a>>