Classdef

Features that are not implemented

enumeration

Octave should be able to parse the enumeration section of a classdef definition but nothing is done with it. Progress on this feature is tracked in bug report #44582.

events and listeners

Octave should be able to parse the events section of a classdef definition but nothing is done with it. Progress on this feature is tracked in bug report #56194.

built-in class as superclass

Octave does not allow subclassing built-in classes. In Matlab, classdef objects may subclass built-in integer, floating point, and logical types. For example,

classdef nonsense < uint32
  ...
end

does not work.

Progress on this feature is tracked in bug report #44035.

concatenation of classdef objects

Octave does not support concatenation of classdef objects to create classdef array objects.

Example:

classdef MyClass < handle
end

c = MyClass();
cc = [c, c];   % won't work

For now you can use a cell-array of objects instead:

cc = {c, c};   % ok

Progress on this feature is tracked in bug reports #44665 and #53906.

Saving and loading classdef objects

Saving and loading classdef objects is not supported.

Progress on this feature is tracked in bug report #45833

Supported

Methods

Classdef methods are supported but not all attributes are fully implemented.

Attribute	Support	Notes
Abstract	Partial	See bug report #51377
Access	Yes
Hidden	Yes
Sealed	Yes
Static	Yes

Properties

Classdef properties are supported but not all attributes are implemented.

Attribute	Support	Notes
AbortSet	No	Property does not exist.
Abstract	Yes
Access	Partial
Constant	Yes
Dependent	Partial
GetAccess	Partial
GetObservable	No	Property exists but is not used. Requires events and listeners to be implemented in order to work properly.
Hidden	Yes
NonCopyable	No	Property does not exist.
SetAccess	Partial
SetObservable	No	Property exists but is not used. Requires events and listeners to be implemented in order to work properly.
Transient	No	Property exists but is not used.

Open Bug Reports for Issues not Described Above

Issues with basic classdef functionality

• 51659 Calling 'methods' on self causes syntax error
• 48682 print_usage fails within classdef block
• 49434 which returns "built-in function" for classdef m-file
• 48041 classdef: `help myclass` messes up `help @myclass/method`
• 43047 help() does not see classdef files
• 42620 exist() does not use "class" argument
• 53874 doc_cache_create doesnt handle classdef documentation
• 52096 meta.class.fromName throws error when class name not found.
• 48693 classdef subsref method is not called with correct nargout value
• 56006 Object indexing: obj(1).property(end+1:n) - end is interpreted wrong
• 55983 'x(ix) = []' deletion syntax does not work for objects
• 55976 cat, repmat, and reshape don't work for classdef objects
• 55961 properties function does not preserve order
• 55768 display of classdef object should not show private or protected properties
• 55766 properties function should not return Hidden properties
• 55746 interpreter fails to instantiate classdef with classdef properties
• 52582 using static method to initialize property value fails

Classdef and +package directories

• 54941 interpreter cannot find methods in files of classdefs in packages

Arrays of classdef objects

• 47755 Access to object arrays
• 47241 classdef: assigning property of handle object in object array constructs new object

Debugger (fixes for these are in progress)

• 46451 unable to set breakpoints within classdef classes
• 45404 Breakpoints cannot be set in classdef methods or +package function files

Lower-priority issues

• 55488 Invalid use of colon char as classdef function's argument when subsref is overwritten
• 54966 Error when assigning array to an object implementing subsasgn() subscripted using "{}"
• 54028 copy of non-handle class instance is not deep
• 53811 cellfun does not find overloaded function with function name argument
• 52989 classdef: missing error messages on multiply defined properties
• 52614 setting properties of classdef object during construction with inheritance
• 52582 Dependent constant properties in classdef errors: no such file
• 52123 Indirect memory leak in cdef_manager::initialize ()
• 51285 max_recursion_depth error in classdef constructor
• 50395 subclassing a class that is also defined as a variable fails
• 50011 failure to report error on conflicting methods for classdef
• 49379 classdef constructor: .argn. loses first argument, inputname(n) returns inputname(n+1)
• 55810 sizeof() and whos() returns 0 bytes for classdef objects
• 45893 classdef properties are not reloaded when file is updated
• 44643 classdef handle object can go into an recursive loop with isequal(obj1,obj2) if both are self-referential
• 55755 mxGetProperty does not work with properties marked as Dependent
• 55767 classdef property should not be the same as classdef name (at least for Matlab compatibility)

Documentation

• 50729 Improve OOP documentation
• 47908 Octave:classdef-to-struct not documented in warning_ids.m
• 44590 More documentation for the current status of classdef implementation

Classdef examples in the wild

• http://hg.savannah.gnu.org/hgweb/octave/file/tip/scripts/general/inputParser.m
• http://hg.savannah.gnu.org/hgweb/octave/file/tip/scripts/%2Bcontainers/Map.m
• https://github.com/markuman/go-redis
• https://github.com/PetrKryslUCSD/FinEALE