Initialize a field in all elements of a struct array

Hi,

I'm looking for a "one-liner" for initialization of a certain field in an existing struct array. I know that I may achieve this by calling struct(somefiledname,values), or something similar) but I want to initialize all of these additional fields for an existing array of structs, without changing the existing fields.

For example- I have a(1).field1=1; a(2).field1=2; a(3).field1=3;

and I want a one-liner which will add an additional field- "field2" to the "a" struct array (possibly- all ones, all zeros etc.).

Any such shortcut? Or the only way is to iterate through the array?

Thanks!

Answer 1

[Stephen23]

Simpler:

[a.field2] = deal(1);

Or if you have multiple items to use:

C = {1,2,3};
[a.field2] = C{:};

Answer 2

[Adam Danz]

Try this out. It adds a field named 'field2' to each structure and allocates a vector of 4 zeros.

a = arrayfun(@(x) setfield(x, 'field2', zeros(1,4)), a);

Answer 3

[James Tursa]

Another way using deal:

[a(1:numel(a)).field2] = deal(4);