Direct cell {} indexing of class method output

Over the years, I've seen lots of posts (like this one) asking whether it is possible to append indexing operators to a function call, so as to extract partial contents from the function's output in a single command. The stock answer is that such syntax is not allowed. Lately however (R2017b), I have noticed that this is possible when a class method returns a cell array. Take the following class as an example,

     classdef myclass 

         methods
             function c=foo(obj) 

                 c={pi,exp(1),1i};

             end
         end

     end

I find that I can do the following kinds of post-indexing, which I reason shouldn't be allowed, since foo() is a function call, and not a class property

    >> obj=myclass;

    >> obj.foo{1}

    ans =

        3.1416

    >> obj.foo{1:2}

    ans =

        3.1416

    ans =

        2.7183

My question is, has this always been possible? Is it documented anywhere?

Answer 1

[James Tursa]

Spot checking: Works in R2009a 32-bit and R2018a 64-bit, so I would presume it has always worked although I have not tested everything in between.