Object-Oriented Programming with MATLAB

Day 1 of 2

Creating Custom Data Types

Objective: Organize your files into packages. Learn some of the basic techniques and benefits of object-oriented programming and experience the differences between procedural and object-oriented programming.

• Creating a namespace by storing multiple files in a package
• Encapsulating data and functionality into a single class definition file
• Documenting custom data types
• Creating and using variables of custom data types

Designing a MATLAB Class

Objective: Make objects reliable by separating interface and implementation. Enhance code maintainability by avoiding code duplication. Customize standard operations for your classes.

• Defining safe interactions via data access methods
• Designing the public class interface with property and method attributes
• Customizing standard operators for your class
• Avoiding code duplication through internal refactoring

Building Class Hierarchies

Objective: Relate multiple similar classes via a common superclass. Extend the generic superclass by specializing its behavior in the subclasses.

• Creating a superclass via abstraction
• Inheriting from a superclass
• Defining abstract properties and methods
• Implementing specialized behavior in subclasses

Day 2 of 2

Facilitating Multiple References

Objective: Embed one class into another via aggregation. Distinguish the use cases for pass-by-value vs. pass-by-reference behavior. Define a class that exhibits reference behavior.

• Creating a viewer class containing a data class
• Writing context-sensitive (polymorphic) code
• Referencing one data object from multiple viewer objects
• Choosing between handle and value classes

Writing Unit Tests

Objective: Guarantee correct behavior by writing formal tests for the corresponding unit of code. Use the unit-testing framework provided within MATLAB. Enhance the quality and flexibility of your software.

• Overview of the MATLAB unit testing framework
• Writing a test method
• Creating a test environment using setup and teardown methods
• Parameterizing a test method
• Testing for error conditions
• Aggregating and running suites of tests

Synchronizing Objects

Objective: Automatically react to property changes using predefined events, listeners, and callbacks. Trigger function calls based on custom events.

• Events, listeners, and callbacks
• Using predefined property events
• Querying class meta information
• Defining property listeners
• Implementing a callback function
• Defining custom events and their callbacks