I understand that you are looking for a dynamic, array-like structure in MATLAB to store and access objects by integer ID without managing empty slots, and with support for direct property/method access.
You can follow the below steps to achieve the desired behaviour in MATLAB:
- Create a handle class: Define a custom class that inherits from handle, so objects are modified by reference.
- Store in “containers.Map”: Use a “containers.Map”with integer keys and handle objects as values to store and retrieve objects by unique ID.
- Access via temporary variable: Since “containers.Map” doesn't support chained indexing, first assign the object to a temporary variable before accessing or modifying its properties.
- Changes persist: Because the objects are handles, any changes made via the temporary variable (like modifying a property or calling a method) will persist in the map.
The below code snippet demonstrates a handle class:
classdef MyObject < handle
properties
ID
Value
end
methods
function obj = MyObject(id, val)
obj.ID = id;
obj.Value = val;
end
function displayInfo(obj)
disp(['ID: ' num2str(obj.ID) ', Value: ' num2str(obj.Value)]);
end
end
end
The properties of the class can be modified using container as below:
% Create Map
objMap = containers.Map('KeyType','int32','ValueType','any');
% Add object
obj1 = MyObject(1, 42);
objMap(obj1.ID) = obj1;
tempObj = objMap(1); % Get the handle object
tempObj.Value = 100; % Modify property
remove(objMap, obj1.ID); %delete the object
I hope this helps you.
