How to use static factory method?

I have following class definition under +mypackage\MyClass.m

classdef MyClass  
    properties
        num
    end
    
    methods (Static)
        function obj = with_five()
            obj = MyClass(5);
        end
    end
    
    methods
        function obj = MyClass(num)
            obj.num = num;
        end
    end
end

I use with_five() as a static factory method.

Following script should create two objects.

import mypackage.MyClass

class_test1 = MyClass(5);
class_test2 = MyClass.with_five();

class_test1 has been created.

For class_test2 it says:

Error using MyClass.with_five
Method 'with_five' is not defined for class 'MyClass' or is removed from MATLAB's search path.

Error in Testpackage (line 4)
class_test2 = MyClass.with_five();

When I put MyClass.m outside of a package folder and remove the "import" statement, it works.

What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

[Greg]

Old question, but maybe others have seen this and wondered the same thing. Fairly simple answer.

In your factory method, you do not call out the namespace:

            obj = MyClass(5);

Needs to be:

            obj = mypackage.MyClass(5);            

The import is in your test script, not your class. Import statements are extremely localized, so the factory method does not know about a MyClass, only a mypackage.MyClass.