Is there a way to store original structs in a cell array?

Hello, I am trying to design an application and I want to change "Enable" property of some spinners according to user input. However, I have 30 spinners in my app and I do not want to write if or switch conditions for every possible input, so I considered storing spinners in a cell array by writing get(app.Spinner). It did not work because (I think- I am new to programming) a copy of the object is assigned into cell array. Therefore, I am asking this if storing an original object is available or is there any different approach that I can achieve my goal. Any help appreciated.

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

When you ask to get(app.Spinner) you are asking for the public properties of app.Spinner to be fetched. Most object properties are not handle objects, so you mostly get data such as 'on' or coordinate vectors.

Properties that happen to be handle objects will have the handle being saved. MATLAB is not deliberately making copies of the contents of handle objects.

If you want to locate graphic objects with a particular property, use findobj()

[Berkay Yaldiz]

Thank you very much, it worked. However, I could not understand the exact difference between get and findobj. In the workspace when I opened my cell array, assigned struct with findobj has "properties"; on the other hand, assigned struct with get has fields. What is the exact difference between them?

[Walter Roberson]

findobj locates objects and returns handles to them. You can then query their properties.

get() fetches properties but has to be told where it is fetching from.

figs = findobj(groot, 'type', 'figure') 
%figs is just handles
n = get(figs, 'name') 
%n will now be a cell array of figure names 
%unless only one figure was found. Then
%n would be the figure name directly

[Berkay Yaldiz]

Thank you, I understand it.