I would like to overload only one type of subsref calls (the '()' type) for a particular class and leave any other calls to Matlab's built in subsref -- specifically, I want Matlab to handle property/method access via the '.' type. But, it seems like Matlab's 'builtin' function doesn't work when subsref is overloaded in a class.
Consider this class:
classdef TestBuiltIn
properties
testprop = 'This is the built in method';
end
methods
function v = subsref(this, s)
disp('This is the overloaded method');
end
end
end
To use the overloaded subsref method, I do this:
t = TestBuiltIn;
t.testprop
>> This is the overloaded method
That's as expected. But now I want to call Matlab's built in subsref method. To make sure I'm doing things right, first I try out a similar call on a struct:
x.testprop = 'Accessed correctly';
s.type = '.';
s.subs = 'testprop';
builtin('subsref', x, s)
>> Accessed correctly
That's as expected as well. But, when I try the same method on TestBuiltIn:
builtin('subsref', t, s)
>> This is the overloaded method
...Matlab calls the overloaded method rather than the built in method. Why does Matlab call the overloaded method when I requested that it call the builtin method?
UPDATE: In response to @Andrew Janke's answer, that solution almost works but doesn't quite. Consider this class:
classdef TestIndexing
properties
prop1
child
end
methods
function this = TestIndexing(n)
if nargin==0
n = 1;
end
this.prop1 = n;
if n<2
this.child = TestIndexing(n+1);
else
this.child = ['child on instance ' num2str(n)];
end
end
function v = subsref(this, s)
if strcmp(s(1).type, '()')
v = 'overloaded method';
else
v = builtin('subsref', this, s);
end
end
end
end
All of this works:
t = TestIndexing;
t(1)
>> overloaded method
t.prop1
>> 1
t.child
>> [TestIndexing instance]
t.child.prop1
>> 2
But this doesn't work; it uses the built in subsref for the child rather than the overloaded subsref:
t.child(1)
>> [TestIndexing instance]
Note that the above behavior is inconsistent with both of these behaviors (which are as expected):
tc = t.child;
tc(1)
>> overloaded method
x.child = t.child;
x.child(1)
>> overloaded method
It's possible, IIRC. To change ()
but not {}
and '.', write your subsref
method to pass those other cases along to the builtin subsref from within your overloaded subsref, instead of trying to explicitly call the builtin from outside.
function B = subsref(A, S)
% Handle the first indexing on your obj itself
switch S(1).type
case '()'
B = % ... do your custom "()" behavior ...
otherwise
% Enable normal "." and "{}" behavior
B = builtin('subsref', A, S(1))
end
end
% Handle "chaining" (not sure this part is fully correct; it is tricky)
orig_B = B; % hold on to a copy for debugging purposes
if numel(S) > 1
B = subsref(B, S(2:end)); % regular call, not "builtin", to support overrides
end
end
(And if that builtin
call doesn't work, you can just put in cases that use .
and {}
directly, because the subsref
overload is ignored inside the class definition.)
To make it fully functional, you may need to change B to a varargout, and add chaining behavior in to the "()" case.