How can I access all values of type 'function_handle' from a dictionary in MATLAB R2022b?

I have defined a dictionary with they keys as strings and values as function handles as follows:

>> dict = configureDictionary("string","function_handle");
>> dict("a") = @(a) a;
>> dict("b") = @(b) b;
When I try to access all values in the dictionary, it throws the following error:

>> dictVals = dict.values;
Unable to combine entry parts.
How can I retrieve all values of the dictionary?
 

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

MATLAB does not support grouping function handles as a traditional matrix or array but provides the option of clubbing multiple function handles together as a cell array. More information on this can be found under the “Arrays of Function Handles” subsection in the documentation. 

https://www.mathworks.com/help/releases/R2022b/matlab/matlab_prog/creating-a-function-handle.html#brf_zvc-1

Additionally, when looking at the code provided, a possible workaround is to retrieve the dictionary values as a cell array. Please consider the following code:

>> dict = configureDictionary(“string”, “function_handle”);
>> dict(“a”) = @(a) a;
>> dict(“b”) = @(b) b;
>> dictVals = dict.values(“cell”); % This should return a cell array of function handles. 

For further information on how to refer to dictionary values as a cell array, please refer to the following documentation:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/releases/R2022b/matlab/ref/dictionary.values.html#d126e376077