Technical Articles

Objectively Speaking: OOPS is not an Apology

By Cleve Moler, MathWorks


MATLAB® objects are collections of data and functions that operate on that data. Working with an object in MATLAB is like working with any other variable, but is often more convenient because objects are designed and optimized to achieve particular objectives.

In this article, originally published in 1999, Cleve Moler introduces MATLAB objects and two early examples of object use in MATLAB. The first example, from a research project at MIT, enables matrices to be constructed and stored on an external parallel computer system, where computations on those matrices are also carried out. The second simplifies the process of performing arithmetic operations and conversions on quantities involving units of measurement, in part by recognizing and acting upon several dozen keywords, such as meter, kg, second, milli, foot, volt, and lightyear. Cleve explains how object-oriented concepts such as overloading and inheritance can be applied using MATLAB objects.

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Published 1999 - 92022v00