What is the meaning of empty parenthesis in Matlab Object Oriented Programming?

I have been working on OFDM using Object Oriented methadology and in the following code block trying to understand the usage of the functions with empty parenthesis.

In the code the first function with obj in the paranthesis but the others have empty paranthesis. Could you please help how to interpret the empty ones?

classdef OFDM_Signal

      properties
          ...
      end

      methods
          function obj=OFDM_Signal(StructParameters)
              ....
          end
      end

      methods
          function ofdmTransmitter(Obj)       
                  % Source
                  Obj.genOfdmBits();
                  % TxBits to symbol conversion (mapper)
                  Obj.getOfdmData();
                  ......
          end

      end
  end

Answer 1

[Guillaume]

It's the same meaning as for normal functions: it does not mean anything. It's calling the function or method with no arguments and the parenthesis could be omitted.

The only reason for writing the parenthesis is to convey to the reader that you're calling a method of the class instead of accessing a property of the class. I.e. I would write:

a = obj.someproperty;
b = obj.somefuncwithnoargs();

to make clear that someprop is a property and somefuncwithnoargs is a function. It's just a matter of preference. As said the parenthesis are optional.

This may also be a hang up from other languages such as C++, where parenthesis are always required for function calls.

[Tuncay Eren]

Thanks a lot!!!