Dot notation from string

Hi,

Is there any way to convert string with dots do a dot notation?

Let S be a structure, I want to get

I store a "path" to field to a string

path = ['field1.field2.field3'];

I want to get to a specified field3, instead of

S.field1.field2.field3

I want to call it like this, without separating it by dots.

S.(path)

If I put it like this, it treats the whole string like one name of field.

The reason is that I use a loop which creates the string "path", depending on existance of fields in each "depth" - the substructures are inconsistent. I want the "depth" (number of dots) to be variable.

THX

[Peng Li]

Have you tried eval instead?

eval(['S.' path]);

[Vit Krcal]

Thanks a lot!

[Stephen23]

@Peng Li: due to the disadvantages of eval that approach is not recommended.

Answer 1

[Steven Lord]

DON'T use eval. There's no need to use it in this case anyway. split the text representation of the nested fields into pieces then pass those pieces into getfield as a comma-separated list.

S.field1.field2.field3 = 42;
P = 'field1.field2.field3';
pathPieces = split(P, '.');
theAnswer = getfield(S, pathPieces{:})

Things get trickier if you have a more complicated indexing expression, but take a look at the help and documentation for getfield for how to handle such situations.

[Vit Krcal]

THX :)