Compare Function Handles

Compare Handles Constructed from Named Function

MATLAB® considers function handles that you construct from the same named function to be equal. The isequal function returns a value of true when comparing these types of handles.

fun1 = @sin;
fun2 = @sin;
isequal(fun1,fun2)

ans =

  logical

   1

If you save these handles to a MAT-file, and then load them back into the workspace, they are still equal.

Compare Handles to Anonymous Functions

Unlike handles to named functions, function handles that represent the same anonymous function are not equal. They are considered unequal because MATLAB cannot guarantee that the frozen values of nonargument variables are the same. For example, in this case, A is a nonargument variable.

A = 5;
h1 = @(x)A * x.^2;
h2 = @(x)A * x.^2;
isequal(h1,h2)

ans =

  logical

   0

If you make a copy of an anonymous function handle, the copy and the original are equal.

h1 = @(x)A * x.^2;
h2 = h1;
isequal(h1,h2)

ans =

  logical

   1

Compare Handles to Nested Functions

MATLAB considers function handles to the same nested function to be equal only if your code constructs these handles on the same call to the function containing the nested function. This function constructs two handles to the same nested function.

function [h1,h2] = test_eq(a,b,c)
h1 = @findZ;
h2 = @findZ;

   function z = findZ
   z = a.^3 + b.^2 + c';
   end
end

Function handles constructed from the same nested function and on the same call to the parent function are considered equal.

[h1,h2] = test_eq(4,19,-7);
isequal(h1,h2)

ans =

  logical

   1

Function handles constructed from different calls are not considered equal.

[q1,q2] = test_eq(4,19,-7);
isequal(h1,q1)

ans =

  logical

   0