Issue with delete(object)

Hello,

I have a simple Matlab class. It has 2 properties, a string and an integer. The constructor is as follows:

function [obj, error] = constuctor_fct(arg1, arg2)
    obj.property_str = arg1;
    obj.property_int = arg2;
    
    error = class.someOtherStaticMethod(obj.property_str, obj.property_int);
    if (error ~= 0)
        % There has been an issue, abort. Not relevant here
    end
end

The issue I have is with the destructor. I want it to be this:

function destructor_fct(obj)
    delete(obj)
end

However, when I call obj.destructor_fct() in my code, I get the following error:

Error using delete

Name must be a text scalar.

That seems very confusing to me, as I do not understand how a method used to delete objects should expect text scalars. Also, as far as I can tell and from what I tested, the static method called in the constructor does not interact with the object at all. I could just as well directly pass arg1 and arg2 to it, and the issue still happens.

Any idea what I did wrong ? Is delete not the correct method to delete an object from memory ? What should I use instead ?

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

delete() of objects applies to handle objects, not to value objects. You cannot delete a value object from inside the class.

[Aurélien]

Indeed, I did not know there were different kinds of classes. It works properly when inheriting handle. Thanks !