MATLAB Object-Oriented Programming

Exclude Properties from Copy

Use the NonCopyable property attribute to indicate that you do not want a copy

operation to copy a particular property value. By default, NonCopyable is false,

indicating that the property value is copyable. You can set NonCopyable to true only on

properties of handle classes.

For classes that derive from matlab.mixin.Copyable, the default implementation of

copyElement honors the NonCopyable attribute. Therefore, if a property has its

NonCopyable attribute set to true, then copyElement does not copy the value of that

property. If you override copyElement in your subclass, you can choose how to use the

NonCopyable attribute.

Set the Attribute to Not Copy

Set NonCopyable to true in a property block:

properties (NonCopyable)

Prop1

end

Default Values

If a property that is not copyable has a default value assigned in the class definition, the

copy operation assigns the default value to the property. For example, the CopiedClass

assigns a default value to Prop2.

classdef CopiedClass < matlab.mixin.Copyable

properties (NonCopyable)

Prop1

Prop2 = datestr(now) % Assign current time

end

end

Create an object to copy and assign a value to Prop1:

a = CopiedClass;

a.Prop1 = 7

a =

CopiedClass with properties:

7 Value or Handle Class — Which to Use