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Class Constructor Methods

Rules for Constructors

A constructor method is a special function that creates an instance of the class. Typically, constructor methods accept input arguments to assign the data stored in properties and always return an initialized object.

• The constructor has the same name as the class.

• The only output argument from a constructor is the object constructed.

• The constructor can return only a single argument.

• If the class being created is a subclass, the MATLAB class system calls the constructor of each superclass class to initialize the object. Implicit calls to the superclass constructor are made with no arguments. If superclass constructors require arguments, you must call them from the subclass constructor explicitly.

• A class does not need to define a constructor method unless it is a subclass of a superclass whose constructor requires arguments. In this case, you must explicitly call the superclass constructor with the required arguments. See Constructing Subclasses

• If a class does not define a constructor, the MATLAB class system supplies a constructor that takes no arguments and returns a scalar object whose properties are initialized to empty or the values specified as defaults in the property definitions. The constructor supplied by MATLAB also calls all superclass constructors with no arguments.

• If you create a class constructor, you should implement class constructors so that they can be called with no input arguments, in addition to whatever arguments are normally required See Supporting the No Input Argument Case and Basic Structure of Constructor Methods.

• Constructors must always return objects of their own class. A superclass constructor cannot return an object of a subclass.

• Calls to superclass constructors cannot be conditional. This means superclass construction calls cannot be placed in loops, conditions, switches, try/catch, or nested functions. See No Conditional Calls to Superclass Constructors for more information.

• You can restrict access to constructors using method attributes, as with any method.

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Examples of Class Constructors

The following links provide access to examples of class constructors:

• Implementing the BankAccount Class

• The Filewriter Class

• Simplifying the Interface with a Constructor

• Specializing the dlnode Class

• Example — A Class to Manage uint8 Data

• Referencing Superclasses from Subclasses

• Constructor Arguments and Object Initialization

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Initializing the Object Within a Constructor

Constructor functions must return an initialized object as the only output argument. The output argument is created when the constructor executes, before executing the first line of code.

For example, the following constructor function can assign the value of the object's property A as the first statement because the object obj has already been assigned to an instance of myClass.

function obj = myClass(a,b,c)
   obj.A = a;
      ...
end

You can call other class methods from the constructor because the object is already initialized.

The constructor also creates an object whose properties have their default values—either empty ([]) or the default value specified in the property definition block. See Property Definition Block for a description of this syntax and see Defining Default Values for a discussion of how best to define property values.

For example, the following code calls the class method CalculateValue to assign the value of the property Value.

function obj = myClass(a,b,c)
   obj.Value = obj.CalculateValue(a,b);
      ...
end

Referencing the Object in a Constructor

When initializing the object by assigning values to properties, and so on, you must use the name of the output argument to refer to the object within the constructor. For example, in the following code the output argument is obj and the object is reference as obj:

% obj is the object being constructed
function obj = myClass(arg) 
   obj.propert1 = arg*10;
   obj.method1;
      ...
end

Supporting the No Input Argument Case

There are cases where the constructor must be able to be called with no input argument:

• When loading objects into the workspace. If the class ConstructOnLoad attribute is set to true, the load function calls the class constructor with no arguments.

• When creating or expanding an object array such that not all elements are given specific values, the class constructor is called with no arguments to fill in unspecified elements, (for example, x(10,1) = myclass(a,b,c);). In this case, the constructor is called once with no arguments to populate the empty array elements with copies of this one object. See Creating Empty Arrays for more information.

If there are no input arguments, the constructor creates an object using only default properties values. A good practice is to always add a check for zero arguments to the class constructor to prevent an error if either of the two cases above occur:

function obj = myClass(a,b,c)
   if  nargin > 0
      obj.A = a;
      obj.B = b;
      obj.C = c;
      ...
   end
end

See Basic Structure of Constructor Methods for ways to handle superclass constructors.

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Constructing Subclasses

Subclass constructor functions must explicitly call superclass constructors if the superclass constructors require input arguments. The subclass constructor must specify these arguments in the call to the superclass constructor using the following syntax:

function obj = myClass(arg)
   obj = obj@SuperClassName(ArgumentList)
      ...
end

Any uncalled constructors are called in the left-to-right order that they are specified, but no arguments are passed to these functions.

No Conditional Calls to Superclass Constructors

Calls to superclass constructors must be unconditional and you can have only one call for any given superclass. You must initialize the superclass portion of the object by calling the superclass constructors before you can use the object (for example., to assign property values or call class methods).

In cases where you need to call superclass constructors with different arguments, depending on some condition, you can conditionally build a cell array of arguments and provide one call to the constructor.

For example, in the following example the superclass shape constructor is called using some default values when the cube constructor has been called with no arguments:

classdef cube < shape
   properties
      SideLength = 0;
      Color = [0 0 0];
   end
   methods
      function cube_obj = cube(length,color,upvector,viewangle) 
         if nargin == 0 % Provide default values if called with no arguments
            super_args{1} = [0 0 1];
            super_args{2} = 10;
         else
            super_args{1} = upvector;
            super_args{2} = viewangle;
         end
         cube_obj = cube_obj@shape(args{:});
         if nargin > 0 % Use value if provided
            cube_obj.SideLength = length;
            cube_obj.Color = color;
         end
      ...
   end
   ...
end

Zero or More Superclass Arguments

If you are calling the superclass constructor from the subclass constructor and you need to support the case where you call the superclass constructor with no arguments, you must explicitly provide for this syntax.

Suppose in the case of the cube class example above, all property values in the shape superclass and the cube subclass have initial values specified in the class definitions that create a default cube. Then you could create an instance of cube without specifying any arguments for the superclass or subclass constructors. Here is how you can implement this behavior in the cube constructor:

function obj = cube(length,color,upvector,viewangle) 
   if nargin == 0 
% Create empty cell array if no input argsuments
      super_args = {}; 
   else
% Use specified argsuments
      super_args{1} = upvector;
      super_args{2} = viewangle;
   end
% Call the superclass constructor with the 
% empty cell array (no arguments) if nargin == 0
% otherwise cell array is not empty
   cube_obj = cube_obj@shape(super_args{:});
   if nargin > 0 
      cube_obj.SideLength = length;
      cube_obj.Color = color;
   end
   ...
end

More on Subclasses

See Creating Subclasses — Syntax and Techniques for information on creating subclasses.

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Errors During Class Construction

If an error occurs during the construction of a handle class, the MATLAB class system calls the class destructor on the object along with the destructors for any objects contained in properties and any initialized base classes.

See Handle Class Delete Methods for information on how objects are destroyed.

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Basic Structure of Constructor Methods

It is important to consider the state of the object under construction when writing your constructor method. Constructor methods can be structured into three basic sections:

• Pre-initialization — Compute arguments for superclass constructors.

• Object initialization — Call superclass constructors.

• Post initialization — Perform any operations related to the subclass, including referencing and assigning to the object, call class methods, passing the object to functions, and so on.

This code illustrates the basic operations performed in each section:

classdef myClass < baseClass1
   properties
      ComputedValue
   end
   methods
      function obj = myClass(a,b,c)

%%% Pre Initialization %%%
% Any code not using first output argument (obj)
         if nargin == 0
         % Provide values for superclass constructor
         % and initialize other inputs 
            a = someDefaultValue;
            args{1} = someDefaultValue;
            args{2} = someDefaultValue;
         else
           % When nargin ~= 0, assign to cell array, 
           % which is passed to supclass constructor
            args{1} = b;
            args{2} = c;
         end
         compvalue = myClass.staticMethod(a);

%%% Object Initialization %%%
% Call superclass constructor before accessing object
% You cannot conditionalize this statement
         obj = obj@baseClass1(args{:});

%%% Post Initialization %%%
% Any code, including access to object
         obj.classMethod(...);
         obj.ComputedValue = compvalue;
         ...
      end
      ...
   end
   ...
end

See Creating Object Arrays for information on creating object arrays in the constructor.

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Ordinary Methods

Creating Object Arrays

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