How to open a saved figure?

I save figures to a MasterStruct for later access to store data, i am trying to open the figures using two different methods:

1.

figure(MasterStruct(k).fighandle)

Error using figure

Argument must be a Figure object or a positive integer.

class(MasterStruct(k).fighandle)='matlab.ui.Figure'

2.

openfig("file/subfolder/fighandle.fig")
figure(fighandle)

Error using figure

Argument must be a Figure object or a positive integer.

How can i open these previously made figures? the workspace identifies fighandle as a 1x1 figure

Answer 1

[Fangjun Jiang]

If you have the figure saved in a .fig file, I think it should be

open('file/subfolder/fighandle.fig')

[Nicholas Kavouris]

i have amended my ask, this was an oversight when asking my question

Does not resolve the issue

[Fangjun Jiang]

figure handle is dynamically assigned. Run below to get an idea

clear all;close all;
plot(rand(3));
savefig;close all;
a=openfig('Untitled.fig')

a = 
  Figure (1) with properties:

      Number: 1
        Name: ''
       Color: [1 1 1]
    Position: [671 661 577 433]
       Units: 'pixels'

  Show all properties

b=findobj('type','Figure')

b = 
  Figure (1) with properties:

      Number: 1
        Name: ''
       Color: [1 1 1]
    Position: [671 661 577 433]
       Units: 'pixels'

  Show all properties

class(a)

ans = 'matlab.ui.Figure'

class(b)

ans = 'matlab.ui.Figure'

isequal(a,b)

ans = logical
   1

[Nicholas Kavouris]

i undrstand the concepts you outlined above, what I dont understand is:

When i attempt to index into the fields of the structure shown in the attached picture, why does matlab not allow me to open the figures saved in the struct?

It seems logical that using the figure() or openfig() command would work to display this figure since its class is figure

[Fangjun Jiang]

The syntax for openfig(filename) is that the input argument is a .fig file name.

Use variable "a" and "b" above, "a" is a figure handle. It contains meta data of the figure. You could do

open a, it opens the figure property editor

but openfig(a) errors because openfig() expects a .fig file name.