As noted by Alan, I was only suggesting using handle class as a container for your global variables (with the benefit that such an object would be passed by reference). The created object is not intended to be directly manipulated by your C++ code (it will be stored in the generic mxArray/mwArray
C/C++ struct).
As far as I know, you cannot directly compile classdef-style MATLAB classes into proper C++ classes when building shared libraries using the MATLAB Compiler. It only supports building regular functions. You could create functional interfaces to MATLAB class member methods, but that's a different story...
Perhaps a complete example would help illustrate the idea I had in mind. First lets define the code on the MATLAB side:
GlobalData.m
This is the handle class used to store the global vars.
classdef GlobalData < handle
%GLOBALDATA Handle class to encapsulate all global state data.
%
% Note that we are not taking advantage of any object-oriented programming
% concept in this code. This class acts only as a container for publicly
% accessible properties for the otherwise global variables.
%
% To manipulate these globals from C++, you should create the class API
% as normal MATLAB functions to be compiled and exposed as regular C
% functions by the shared library.
% For example: create(), get(), set(), ...
%
% The reason we use a handle-class instead of regular variables/structs
% is that handle-class objects get passed by reference.
%
properties
val
end
end
create_globals.m
A wrapper function that acts as a constructor to the above class
function globals = create_globals()
%CREATE_GLOBALS Instantiate and return global state
globals = GlobalData();
globals.val = 2;
end
fcn_add.m, fcn_times.m
MATLAB functions to be exposed as C++ functions
function out = fcn_add(globals, in)
% receives array, and return "input+val" (where val is global)
out = in + globals.val;
end
function out = fcn_times(globals, in)
% receives array, and return "input*val" (where val is global)
out = in .* globals.val;
end
With the above files stored in current directory, lets build the C++ shared library using the MATLAB Compiler:
>> mkdir out
>> mcc -W cpplib:libfoo -T link:lib -N -v -d ./out create_globals.m fcn_add.m fcn_times.m
You should expect the following generated files among others (I'm on a Windows machine):
./out/libfoo.h
./out/libfoo.dll
./out/libfoo.lib
Next, we could create a sample C++ program to test the library:
main.cpp
// Sample program that calls a C++ shared library created using
// the MATLAB Compiler.
#include <iostream>
using namespace std;
// include library header generated by MATLAB Compiler
#include "libfoo.h"
int run_main(int argc, char **argv)
{
// initialize MCR
if (!mclInitializeApplication(NULL,0)) {
cerr << "Failed to init MCR" << endl;
return -1;
}
// initialize our library
if( !libfooInitialize() ) {
cerr << "Failed to init library" << endl;
return -1;
}
try {
// create global variables
mwArray globals;
create_globals(1, globals);
// create input array
double data[] = {1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9};
mwArray in(3, 3, mxDOUBLE_CLASS, mxREAL);
in.SetData(data, 9);
// create output array, and call library functions
mwArray out;
fcn_add(1, out, globals, in);
cout << "Added matrix:\n" << out << endl;
fcn_times(1, out, globals, in);
cout << "Multiplied matrix:\n" << out << endl;
} catch (const mwException& e) {
cerr << e.what() << endl;
return -1;
} catch (...) {
cerr << "Unexpected error thrown" << endl;
return -1;
}
// destruct our library
libfooTerminate();
// shutdown MCR
mclTerminateApplication();
return 0;
}
int main()
{
mclmcrInitialize();
return mclRunMain((mclMainFcnType)run_main, 0, NULL);
}
Lets build the standalone program:
>> mbuild -I./out main.cpp ./out/libfoo.lib -outdir ./out
And finally run the executable:
>> cd out
>> !main
Added matrix:
3 6 9
4 7 10
5 8 11
Multiplied matrix:
2 8 14
4 10 16
6 12 18
HTH