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Use Function and Member Function Templates

Overloaded Functions

MATLAB® supports C++ function and member function templates. The C++ interface generates a MATLAB function overload for each function template instantiation using a valid MATLAB name based on the C++ function name. Suppose that you have this C++ header file that defines a function template show and provides instantiations for types int, double, and const A.

class A{}; // User type
template<typename T> void show(T a) {}
template void show<int>(int);
template void show<double>(double);
template<> void show<const A &>(const A& a){}

Build interface libname, then display help for the show function. MATLAB displays the calling syntax for three functions.

help clib.libname.show
  clib.libname.show    Representation of C++ function show.

  clib.libname.show(a)
    Input Arguments
      a              int32  

 clib.libname.show    Representation of C++ function show.

  clib.libname.show(a)
    Input Arguments
      a              double  

 clib.libname.show    Representation of C++ function show.

  clib.libname.show(a)
    Input Arguments
      a              read-only clib.libname.A

If you type:

var = pi;
clib.libname.show(var)

then MATLAB chooses the signature with input type double.

Unique Function Names

The C++ interface also generates unique function names based on the signature types. To view the unique names for the show function, type:

help clib.libname
Classes contained in clib.libname:
A                              -  clib.libname.A    Representation of C++ class A.


Functions contained in clib.libname:
show                           -  clib.libname.show    Representation of C++ function show.

show_AConst__                  -  clib.libname.show    Representation of C++ function show.

show                           -  clib.libname.show    Representation of C++ function show.

show_double_                   -  clib.libname.show    Representation of C++ function show.

show                           -  clib.libname.show    Representation of C++ function show.

show_int_                      -  clib.libname.show    Representation of C++ function show.

To call the type-specific function for input of type double, type:

clib.libname.show_double_(var)

Publishers can modify these names when building an interface to the library. For more information, see Customize Function Template Names.