MATLAB Compiler

Compiling Private and Method Functions

Private functions are functions that reside in subdirectories with the special name private, and are visible only to functions in the parent directory. Since private functions are invisible outside of the parent directory, they can use the same names as functions in other directories. Because MATLAB looks for private functions before standard M-file functions, it will find a private function before a nonprivate one.

Method functions are implementations specific to a particular MATLAB type or user-defined object. Method functions are only invoked when the argument list contains an object of the correct class.

In order to compile a method function, you must specify the name of the method along with the classname so that the Compiler can differentiate the method function from a nonmethod (normal) function.

Note    Although MATLAB Compiler 3.0 can currently compile method functions, it does not support overloading of methods as implemented in MATLAB. This feature is provided in anticipation of support of overloaded methods being added.

Method directories can contain private directories. Private functions are found only when executing a method from the parent method directory. Taking all of this into account, the Compiler command line needs to be able to differentiate between these various functions that have the same name. A file called foo.m that contains a function called foo can appear in all of these locations at the same time. The conventions used on the Compiler command line are documented in this table.

Name	Description
foo.m	Default version of foo.m
xxx/private/foo.m	foo.m private to the xxx directory
@cell/foo.m	foo.m method to operate on cell arrays
@cell/private/foo.m	foo.m private to methods that operate on cell arrays

This table lists the functions you can specify on the command line and their corresponding function and filenames.

Function	C Function	C++ Function	Filename
foo	mlfFoo mlxFoo mlNFoo mlfNFoo mlfVFoo	foo Nfoo Vfoo mlxFoo	foo.c foo.h foo.cpp foo.hpp
@cell/foo	mlf_cell_foo mlx_cell_foo mlN_cell_foo mlfN_cell_foo mlfV_cell_foo	_cell_foo N_cell_foo V_cell_foo mlx_cell_foo	_cell_foo.c _cell_foo.h _cell_foo.cpp _cell_foo.hpp
xxx/private/foo	mlfXXX_private_foo mlxXXX_private_foo mlNXXX_private_foo mlfNXXX_private_foo mlfVXXX_private_foo	XXX_private_foo NXXX_private_foo VXXX_private_foo mlxXXX_private_foo	_XXX_private_foo.c _XXX_private_foo.h _XXX_private_foo.cpp _XXX_private_foo.hpp
@cell/private/foo	mlfcell_private_foo mlxcell_private_Foo mlNcell_private_Foo mlfNcell_private_Foo mlfVcell_private_Foo	_cell_private_foo N_cell_private_foo V_cell_private_foo mlx_cell_private_foo	_cell_private_foo.c _cell_private_foo.h _cell_private_foo.cpp _cell_private_foo.hpp

For private functions, the name given in the table above may be ambiguous. The MATLAB Compiler generates a warning when it cannot distinguish which private function to use. For example, given these two foo.m private functions and their locations

• /Z/X/private/foo.m
  /Y/X/private/foo.m
  

the Compiler searches up only one level and determines the path to the file as

• X/private/foo.m
  

Since it is ambiguous which foo.m you are requesting, it generates the warning

• Warning: The specified private directory is not unique. Both 
  /Z/X/private and /Y/X/private are found on the path for this 
  private directory.
  

Generated Code

The Generated Header Files