Why do NaNs in a cell array not pass correctly when connecting two MATLAB 7.4 (R2007a) sessions via COM automation?

In a client session of MATLAB, open up a server:

h = actxserver('matlab.application')

In the server session of MATLAB, create a cell array with a "NaN":

A = { 1 2 NaN }

From the client session of MATLAB, retrieve the cell array with the "GetWorkspaceData" method:

A = h.GetWorkspaceData('A','base')

A{3}

In place of the "NaN" as the third element of the cell array is an error message:

 ActiveX VT_ERROR: Parameter not found.

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

MATLAB conforms to IEEE specifications for NaN, but this is an exceptional case in which VB does not conform to IEEE 754, but rather issues an error instead.

To work around the issue, either pre-process the NaN's to conform with a COM data type, or post-process the error messages in the client back into MATLAB NaNs.