External Interfaces

Identifying Objects

Use these MATLAB functions to get information about a COM object.

Function	Description
class	Return the class of a COM object
isa	Detect a COM object of a given class
isevent	Determine if an item is an event of a COM object
ismethod	Determine if an item is a method of a COM object
isprop	Determine if an item is a property of a COM object

Create a COM object, h, in an Automation server running Excel, and also a Workbooks interface, w, to the object:

• h = actxserver('excel.application');
  w = h.Workbooks;
  

To find out the class of variable w, use the class function:

• w.class
  ans =
     Interface.Microsoft_Excel_9.0_Object_Library.Workbooks
  

To test a variable against a known class name, use isa:

• h.isa('COM.excel.application')
  ans =
       1
  

To see if UsableWidth is a property of object h, use isprop:

• h.isprop('UsableWidth')
  ans =
       1
  

To see if SaveWorkspace is a method of object h, use ismethod. Method names are case sensitive and cannot be abbreviated:

• h.ismethod('SaveWorkspace')
  ans =
       1
  

Create the sample mwsamp2 control that comes with MATLAB, and use isevent to see if DblClick is one of the events that this control recognizes:

• f = figure ('position', [100 200 200 200]);
  h = actxcontrol ('mwsamp.mwsampctrl.2', [0 0 200 200], f);
  
  h.isevent('DblClick')
  ans =
       1
  

Releasing COM Interfaces and Objects

Examples of MATLAB as an Automation Client

© 1994-2005 The MathWorks, Inc.