MATLABFunctions for Object Properties

You can get the value of a property and, sometimes, change the value. You also can add custom properties.

Property names are not case-sensitive. You can abbreviate them as long as the name is unambiguous.

Work with Multiple Objects

You can use thegetandsetfunctions on more than one object at a time by creating a vector of object handles and using these commands on the vector. To get or set values for multiple objects, use the functional form of thegetandsetfunctions. Use dot notation, for exampleh.propname, on scalar objects only.

Enumerated Values for Properties

Enumeration makes examining and changing properties easier because each possible value for the property is assigned text to represent it. For example, one of the values for theDefaultSaveFormatproperty in aMicrosoft^®Excel^®spreadsheet isxlUnicodeText. This text is easier to remember than a numeric value like 57.

Property Inspector

The Property Inspector enables you to access the properties of COM objects. To open the Property Inspector, use theinspectfunction from the MATLAB^®command line or double-click the object in the MATLAB Workspace browser.

For example, create an Excel object. Then set theDefaultFilePathproperty to an existing folder,C:\ExcelWork.

h = actxserver('Excel.Application'); h.DefaultFilePath ='C:\ExcelWork';

Display the properties of the object.

inspect(h)

Scroll down until you see theDefaultFilePath财产,你只是改变了,C:\ExcelWork.

Using the Property Inspector, changeDefaultFilePathonce more, this time to another existing folder,MyWorkDirectory. To do this, select the value at the right and type the new value.

Now go back to the MATLAB Command Window and confirm that theDefaultFilePathproperty has changed as expected.

h.DefaultFilePath

ans = C:\MyWorkDirectory

Custom Properties

You can add your own properties to an instance of a control using theaddpropertyfunction.

To remove custom properties from a control, use thedeletepropertyfunction.

Properties That Take Arguments

Some COM objects have properties that accept input arguments. Internally, MATLAB handles these properties as methods, which means you use themethodsorinvokefunctions (not thegetfunction) to view the property.