External Interfaces/API

Using Data Types

The six fundamental data types in MATLAB are double, char, sparse, uint8, cell, and struct. You can write MEX-files, MAT-file applications, and engine applications in C that accept any data type supported by MATLAB. In Fortran, only the creation of double-precision n-by-m arrays and strings are supported. You can treat C and Fortran MEX-files, once compiled, exactly like M-functions.

The explore Example

There is an example MEX-file included with MATLAB, called explore, that identifies the data type of an input variable. The source file for this example is in the <matlab>/extern/examples/mex directory, where <matlab> represents the top-level directory where MATLAB is installed on your system. For example, typing

cd([matlabroot '/extern/examples/mex']);
x = 2;
explore(x);

produces this result

------------------------------------------------
Name: x
Dimensions: 1x1 
Class Name: double
------------------------------------------------
    (1,1) = 2

explore accepts any data type. Try using explore with these examples:

explore([1 2 3 4 5])
explore 1 2 3 4 5
explore({1 2 3 4 5})
explore(int8([1 2 3 4 5]))
explore {1 2 3 4 5}
explore(sparse(eye(5)))
explore(struct('name', 'Joe Jones', 'ext', 7332))
explore(1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Data Types in MATLAB

Building MEX-Files