4. MATLAB Generation from IDL¶
The DDS MATLAB Integration supports generation of MATLAB classes from IDL. This chapter describes the details of the IDL-MATLAB binding.
4.1. Running IDLPP¶
Compiling IDL into MATLAB code is done using the -l matlab switch on idlpp:
idlpp -l matlab idl-file-to-compile.idl
Generated Artifacts
The following table defines the MATLAB artifacts generated from IDL concepts:
IDL Concept |
MATLAB Concept |
Comment |
|---|---|---|
module |
package |
a MATLAB package is a folder starting with ‘+’. |
enum |
class |
a MATLAB .m file. |
enum value |
enum value |
|
struct |
class |
a MATLAB .m file. |
field |
class property |
|
typedef |
IDL typedef’s are inlined. |
|
union |
Unsupported |
|
inheritance |
Unsupported |
Datatype mappings
The following table shows the MATLAB equivalents to IDL primitive types:
IDL Type |
MATLAB Type |
|---|---|
boolean |
logical |
char |
int8 |
octet |
uint8 |
short |
int16 |
ushort |
uint16 |
long |
int32 |
ulong |
uint32 |
long long |
int64 |
ulong long |
uint64 |
float |
single |
double |
double |
string |
char |
wchar |
Unsupported |
wstring |
Unsupported |
any |
Unsupported |
long double |
Unsupported |
Implementing Arrays and Sequences in MATLAB
Both IDL arrays and IDL sequences are mapped to MATLAB arrays. MATLAB supports both native array types, which must have homogenenous contents and cell arrays, which may have heterogenous content. In general, IDLPP prefers native arrays, as they support more straight forward type checking. However, some situations require cell arrays. The following table summarizes the cases where IDLPP will generate cell arrays:
Datatype |
Sample Syntax |
Reason for using cell array |
|---|---|---|
sequence of sequence |
sequence<sequence<T> > f; |
Nested sequences need not have a homogeneous length |
array of sequence |
sequence<T> f[N]; |
Sequences lengths need not be homogeneous |
sequence of array |
sequence<A> f; |
A multi-dim array makes adding elements too difficult |
sequence of string |
sequence<string> f; |
Nested strings need not have a homogeneous length |
string array |
string f[N]; |
Nested strings need not have a homogeneous length |
NB. Please note the space in the syntax for a sequence of sequence. This is according to the OMG standard.
4.2. Limitations of MATLAB Support¶
The IDL-to-MATLAB binding has the following limitations:
IDL unions are not supported
the following IDL data types are not supported: wchar, wstring, any and long double
arrays of sequences of structures are not supported
