Change class property inside of class function/method

I would like assign a new value to a variable created in my class, but the below approach does not update the variable. Is there a different approach?

classdef class_1

properties

var_1

end

function consistency_check_trades(obj)

obj. var_1 = 2

end

end

Answer 1

[Steven Lord]

Your class does not inherit from the handle class so it has value class behavior. See this documentation page for a discussion of the differences between handle and values classes,

[Metin Akyol]

That makes sense, thank you for clarifying. In case others are running into the same issue, adding this to the class definition created the desired behavior:

"classdef class_1 < handle"

[Steven Lord]

That's one way of solving the problem, yes. But being a handle class also comes with some other behaviors. If your class_1 objects aren't tied to something where it makes sense for multiple objects to refer to the same thing (like a figure window on screen):

f1 = figure; % f1 is a handle
f2 = f1; % f2 refers to the same figure as f1
f1.Color

ans = 1×3

1 1 1

f2.Color = 'r'; % Not changing f1's Color property
f1.Color % but the figure to which it refers changed so its property changed

ans = 1×3

1 0 0

Consider if leaving it as a value class (if that makes more sense) and returning the modified object from your method.

[Metin Akyol]

Very helpful, thank you for adding some further explanation to this Steven.