MATLAB Object-Oriented Programming

Property Access Methods

In this section...

“Properties Provide Access to Class Data” on page 8-50

“Property Setter and Getter Methods” on page 8-51

“Set and Get Method Execution and Property Events” on page 8-53

“Access Methods and Properties Containing Arrays” on page 8-54

“Access Methods and Arrays of Objects” on page 8-54

“Modify Property Values with Access Methods” on page 8-54

Properties Provide Access to Class Data

In MATLAB, properties can have public access. Therefore, properties can provide access

to data that the class design exposes to users.

Use property access methods to provide error checking or to implement side effects

resulting from property access. Examples of access methods include functions that update

other property values when setting the property or translate the format of a property

value before returning the value.

You can use property validation to restrict the size, class, and other aspects of property

values. For information on property validation, see “Validate Property Values” on page 8-

24.

Performance Considerations with Access Methods

Property access methods do add the overhead of a function call whenever accessing

property values. If performance-critical access to properties occurs inside methods of the

class, define private properties to store values. Use these values inside methods without

any error checking. For less frequent access from outside the class, define public

Dependent properties that use access methods for error checking.

For information on access methods used with Dependent properties, see “Set and Get

Methods for Dependent Properties” on page 8-62.

8 Properties — Storing Class Data