Can you create an interface for different class objects and then store objects of these different classes in an array
2 views (last 30 days)
Show older comments
hi,
I'm trying to create an array of class objects that all inherit from the same superclass but they vary in their implementation of inherited functions. I know i can create an array of class objects of the same class but i can't find a way to create an array of different class objects. In other languages this is where an interface would come in - I would declare an array of the interface, and then each individual object would be instantiated as a particular subclass - I hope this makes sense. THe folowing code is incorrect but I think what i'm looking would be somewhat like it:
% declare array of interfaceX arr(3) = interfaceX %instantiate each element as different class arr(1) = classA arr(2) = classB arr(3) = classC
Anybody got any ideas? I've looked at abstract classes, but unless i'm mistaken they simply serve as a template for inheriting classes.
Any help would be much appreciated - thanks!
Eoin
0 Comments
Answers (3)
Walter Roberson
on 22 Sep 2011
Which MATLAB version are you using? This was not possible until a fairly recent release; 2011a I think it was, but perhaps it was 2010b.
I seem to recall that people were generally not thrilled with the way it was implemented. It was something like that the type of the array was considered to be the type of the lowest superclass that all of the current array members could inherit from, so the array type could change as you added or removed members.
I haven't used this facility at all myself; I just browsed the discussion. Or perhaps it was another bad dream...
2 Comments
Walter Roberson
on 22 Sep 2011
http://www.mathworks.com/help/techdoc/ref/brk7uzk.html#bsvqsj1
Heterogeneous Arrays
Tracking back through the releases, it appears to require R2011a .
Daniel Shub
on 23 Sep 2011
Depending on what you want to do a cell array might work ....
arr = {classA};
arr = [arr;{ClassB}];
2 Comments
Daniel Shub
on 23 Sep 2011
As I said, it depends on what you want to do. You might be able to use cellfun to call a function on it.
See Also
Categories
Find more on Graphics Object Programming in Help Center and File Exchange
Products
Community Treasure Hunt
Find the treasures in MATLAB Central and discover how the community can help you!
Start Hunting!