Write class methods outside the class file

I have a very large MATLAB class with a lot of methods and I would like to organize them to facilitate the source code maintenance.

So I was thinking to put each Class method in your own MATLAB file, like a pure function and then call the function inside the Class method like this:

classdef my_class < handle
    properties
        big_data
    end
    
    methods
        function [] = my_method1(obj, param1)
            % Here I call the pure function:
            my_function1(obj.big_data, param1)
        end

        function [] = my_method2(obj, param1, param2)
            % Here I call the pure function:
            my_function2(obj.big_data, param1, param2)
        end
    end

So I will have 2 other files:

• my_function1.m
• my_function2.m

My question is:

Doing in that way, when I call the pure function MATLAB will pass the obj.big_data by reference or by value?

Inside these pure functions I'm not modifying the big_data property. This is read-only property.

Answer 1

[Steven Lord]

Rather than defining the class methods in the classdef file to call a separate function, I'd just define them in a separate file in a class folder as shown on this documentation page.

Note that there are some methods that must be defined in the classdef file itself as stated in the last section on that page. The most common and important of those is the class constructor.

This other documentation page may also be of interest to you.

[Nycholas Maia]

thank you!