How do you make multiple variable assignments from s struct?

There has to be a straightfoward way to do this but I can't find it to save my life:

 s = struct([]);
 s(1).x = 1;
 s(1).y = 2;
 s(2).x = -1;
 s(2).y = -2;

 [x1, y1] = s(1); % where x1 is initialized to be s(1).x and y1 to be s(1).y

I have a struct with >10 elements. I'd really like to not have to assign variables one line at a time.

Answer 1

[Robert Cumming]

If you choose to do it the way Joseph Chang mentioned - then I would strongly advise that you change the eval statement to use dynamic fields instead, e.g.:

function a = extractfield(s,name)
  a = s.(name)
end

You could remove the sub function entirely:

function varargout = extractfields(s)
  name = fieldnames(s);   
  for ind = 1:length(name)
     varargout{ind} = s.(name{ind}); 
  end
end

Answer 2

[Guillaume]

An even simpler implementation of the function, using structfun:

function varargout = extractfields(s)
  varargout = structfun(@(f) {f}, s); %force output to cell array with {}
end

[Stephen23]

+1 very neat

Answer 3

[Steven Lord]

Making variables x1, x2, x3, ... x10 and y1, y2, ... y10 this way is discouraged. If your struct array had 1000 elements, do you really want two thousand individual variables in your workspace? What if it had 10000?

Instead, I recommend making two variables, one for x and one for y.

s = struct([]);
s(1).x = 1;
s(1).y = 2;
s(2).x = -1;
s(2).y = -2;
x = [s.x];
y = [s.y];

Wherever you would have referred to (say) x2, instead refer to x(2). It's a few more keystrokes, but a less cluttered and easier to manage workspace.

Answer 4

[Azzi Abdelmalek]

Why do you need to create all these variables. read this http://matlab.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ#How_can_I_create_variables_A1.2C_A2.2C....2CA10_in_a_loop.3F

Answer 5

[Glen]

Because they enter into quite complicated mathematical expressions, and for the moment I favor readability over efficiency. If I could, I'd declare aliases to them, but AFAIK MATLAB doesn't support any such thing.

Also, I can statically declare the variables - there aren't a variable number of them.

Answer 6

[Sean de Wolski]

Not easily. If you want to do this for readability, then you're best off just unpacking them manually since that will be readable. Other workarounds involve kludge.

Answer 7

[Joseph Cheng]

I completely understand trying to have readability for an equation. However instead, put a nice commented note in before or after to show the readable equation and how it relates to the messier one.

to do what you ask create one mfile called extractfields.m and paste below

function varargout = extractfields(s)
  name = fieldnames(s);   
  for ind = 1:length(name)
     varargout{ind} = extractfield(s,name{ind}); 
  end
end

function a = extractfield(s,name)
    a = eval(['s.' name]);
end

so as i placed all the arguments in varargout you just put the number of [x y z t a b c] or less depending on how many you want. The extractfield is actually a name of a function in the mapping toolbox that does the same thing. http://www.mathworks.com/help/map/ref/extractfield.html so if you have the mapping you probably don't need to use the one i put as another function it or incorperate it in the extractfields() function. I didn't just implement the varargout{ind}=eval(_) incase you have the function and i don't like using eval unless necessary.

s = struct([]);
s(1).x = 1;
s(1).y = 2;
s(2).x = -1;
s(2).y = -2;
[x1 y1] = extractfields(s(1));
[x2 y2] = extractfields(s(2));

notes: you need to know the extent of how many items you're extracting and the order, not knowing would cause missing data or an error. I didn't have time to implement something fancy to auto create for you the [x# y#]. But shouldn't be too difficult to read in s, find the number of structs (1:n) then append the fieldnames with that number in the above.