Is it possible to do multi index command in one line?

For example, if I want to get number of columns in an array I would have to do the following:

A = [1 2; 3 4];
mySize = size(A);
myCol = mySize(2);

It adds 2 lines and an extra variable in my code. Is it possible to put them in one line like:

myCol = size(A)(2);

Somthing similar to this because this is not the correct syntax.

Thank you very much!

Answer 1

[Matt J]

Not in general, but in the case of your example there is a shorter syntax,

myCol=size(A,2)

[yoohooo's]

Thank you very much. Ah, I forgot we can also do it this way. This is not a good example, then. But yea, so it's not possible.

[Steven Lord]

For some definition of "one line" it is. Write a function:

A = [1 2 3; 4 5 6];
sz = size(A) % for checking

sz = 1×2

2 3

y = getElement(size(A), 2) % The one line

y = 3

But this has a drawback that the shorter syntax doesn't.

size(A, 3) % A has trailing singleton dimensions

ans = 1

y2 = getElement(size(A), 3)

Index exceeds the number of array elements (2).

Error in solution>getElement (line 7)
y = x(whichone);

function y = getElement(x, whichone)
y = x(whichone);
end

Answer 2

[Matt J]

An approximation of this can be enabled through some incredibly convoluted OOP methods

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/26570-direct-indexing-of-function-calls-oop-exercise?s_tid=srchtitle

It's not worth it...

Answer 3

[Matt J]

This is a generally applicable one line implementation, but probably not what you'd hoped for.

A = [1 2; 3 4];

myCol = subsref( size(A), struct('type','()','subs',{{2}}))

myCol = 2