External Interfaces |
For library functions that take structure arguments, you need to pass structures that have field names that are the same as those in the structure definitions in the library. To determine the names and also the data types of structure fields, you can do one of the following:
You can also determine the field names of an externally defined structure from within MATLAB using the following procedure. When you create and initialize the structure, you don't necessarily have to match the data types of numeric fields. MATLAB converts to the correct numeric type for you when you make the call using the calllib
function. To get the structure field names:
libfunctionsview
to display the signatures for all functions in the library you are using. libfunctionsview
shows the names of the structures used by each function. For example, when you type
shrlibsample
library. The line showing the addStructFields
function reads:
libfunctionsview
display, and invoke the libstruct
function on that type. libstruct
returns an object that is modeled on the structure as defined in the library:
libstruct
:
calllib
:
Specifying Structure Field Names
Here are a few general guidelines that apply to structures passed to external library functions:
Passing a MATLAB Structure
As with other data types, when an external function takes a structure argument (such as a C structure), you can pass a MATLAB structure to the function in its place. Structure field names must match field names defined in the library, but data types for numeric fields do not have to match. MATLAB converts each numeric field of the MATLAB structure to the correct data type.
Example of Passing a MATLAB Structure. The sample shared library, shrlibsample
, defines the following C structure and function:
struct c_struct { double p1; short p2; long p3; }; double addStructFields(struct c_struct st) { double t = st.p1 + st.p2 + st.p3; return t; }
The following code passes a MATLAB structure, sm
, with three double
fields to addStructFields
. MATLAB converts the fields to the double
, short
, and long
data types defined in the C structure, c_struct
.
Passing a libstruct Object
When you pass a structure to an external function, MATLAB makes sure that the structure being passed matches the library's definition for that structure type. It must contain all the necessary fields defined for that type and each field must be of the expected data type. For any fields that are missing in the structure being passed, MATLAB creates an empty field of that name and initializes its value to zero. For any fields that have a data type that doesn't match the structure definition, MATLAB converts the field to the expected type.
When working with small structures, it is efficient enough to have MATLAB do this work for you. You can pass the original MATLAB structure with calllib
and let MATLAB handle the conversions automatically. However, when working with repeated calls that pass one or more large structures, it may be to your advantage to convert the structure manually before making any calls to external functions. In this way, you save processing time by converting the structure data only once at the start rather than at each function call. You can also save memory if the fields of the converted structure take up less space than the original MATLAB structure.
Using the libstruct Function. You can convert a MATLAB structure to a C-like structure derived from a specific type definition in the library in one step. Call the libstruct
function, passing in the name of the structure type from the library, and the original structure from MATLAB. The syntax for libstruct
is
The value s
returned by this function is called a libstruct object. Although it is truly a MATLAB object, it handles much like a MATLAB structure. The fields of this new "structure" are derived from the external structure type specified by structtype
in the syntax above.
For example, to convert a MATLAB structure, sm
, to a libstruct object, sc
, that is derived from the c_struct
structure type, use
The original structure, sm
, has fields that are all of type double
. The object, sc
, returned from the libstruct
call has fields that match the c_struct
structure type. These fields are double
, short
, and long
.
Creating an Empty libstruct Object. You can also create an empty libstruct object by calling libstruct
with only the structtype
argument. This constructs an object with all the required fields and with each field initialized to zero.
libstruct Requirements for Structures. when converting a MATLAB structure to a libstruct object, the structure to be converted must adhere to the same guidelines that were documented for MATLAB structures passed directly to external functions. See Specifying Structure Field Names.
Using the Structure as an Object
The value returned by libstruct
is not a true MATLAB structure. It is actually an instance of a class called lib.c_struct
, as seen by examining the output of whos
:
The fields of this structure are implemented as properties of the lib.c_struct
class. You can read and modify any of these fields using the MATLAB object-oriented functions, set
and get
:
sc = libstruct('c_struct'); set(sc, 'p1', 100, 'p2', 150, 'p3', 200); get(sc) p1: 100 p2: 150 p3: 200
You can also read and modify the fields by simply treating them like any other MATLAB structure fields:
Example of Passing a libstruct Object
Repeat the addStructFields
example, this time converting the structure to one of type c_struct
before calling the function:
sm.p1 = 476; sm.p2 = -299; sm.p3 = 1000; sc = libstruct('c_struct', sm); get(sc) p1: 476 p2: -299 p3: 1000
Now call the function, passing the structure sc
:
Enumerated Types | Creating References |
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