What does the red lock icon mark mean?

Hello,

I tried to access to my own data through MATLAB, but the variables cannot correctly be read. The variables window shows a red lock mark as shown below. Would you tell me what it means?

Answer 1

[Steven Lord]

If you're using the Workspace browser as part of debugging a class method, according to the "View Variable Contents" section on this documentation page "A [lock, opened] or [lock, locked] icon next to a variable property in the Variables editor indicates that the property is protected or private."

[Yasuyuki Hamanaka]

That is the page that I am serching for. I really appreciate you.

And I have an another question. Does 'protected' mean it is locked by publisher? Do you think we have a way to unlock them?

[Walter Roberson]

In a number of cases struct() can be used to see object properties.

[Steven Lord]

As stated in the definition of the Access property attribute on this documentation page, anyone can access public properties of an object. Protected properties may only be accessed by methods of the class that define the property and instances of subclasses of that class. Private properties may only be accessed by method of the defining class, not even instances of subclasses can access them.

Generally the author of this class decides whether they want end users or people who build upon their classes to have access to properties. You could (if you have access to the source code for the class defining the protected property) change that Access / GetAccess / SetAccess property attribute, but I'd be wary of fiddling with the internal guts of a class the author didn't intend you to manipulate. You could cause the class to stop working correctly.

[Yasuyuki Hamanaka]

Steven,

I'm just accessing to data file and it seems does not have any code. So I'm confusing why and how it is partially locked. But anyway, thank you so much for your advise.

Walter,

I appreciate you your quick reply.

[Walter Roberson]

You are examining an object-oriented Object. Objects are values combined with behaviour; the behaviour is typically defined by .m files, typically a .m file that includes a classdef statement.

The code Steven is referring to is the defining code for the class and its method; the object you are examining can only be understand properly in relationship to that code, and that code defines the behaviour about who is (normally) permitted to examine and modify the values.