Use of pointers to structures

Dear all,

I would like to know if it is possible to use pointers to structures. The case I would like to use this time is like this:

% case_tal,case_cual are structs with data from different systems, I want to loop on them
for i_case = [case_tal,case_cual]
   % i_case.file is an array of files that I want to loop within each case
   for i_file = i_case.file
       i_file.data = do_stuff_on_the_data;
   end
end

I want to use pointers because I would like that when I do

   i_file.data = do_stuff_on_the_data;

the struct really is modified and store the data, not lose it.

Is it possible?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

[Adam]

Matlab does not have the concept of pointers.

You can use a class derived from handle to achieve this 'by reference' behaviour instead of a struct, but a struct in Matlab is just a simple object to hang data off and you have to reassign to the struct if you want to change the data.

You can just do:

i_file.data = do_stuff_on_the_data( i_file.data );

though. It's ugly as a programming construct, but it does the job when you can't pass things by reference (or pointer).

Document for reference on classes if you aren't aware of it:

http://www.mathworks.co.uk/help/pdf_doc/matlab/matlab_oop.pdf

Answer 2

[Matt J]

The simplest solution would be to simply return i_file as an output from whatever function is performing the code you show. However, to have the semantics you mention, you could create a handle class

      classdef myclass<handle

       properties
          data 
       end

      end

Now, when you create the variable as follows

    i_file=myclass;

it will have the behavior you're looking for.