deal

Deal inputs to outputs

Syntax

• [Y1,Y2,Y3,...] = deal(X)
  [Y1,Y2,Y3,...] = deal(X1,X2,X3,...)
  

Description

[Y1,Y2,Y3,...] = deal(X) copies the single input to all the requested outputs. It is the same as Y1 = X, Y2 = X, Y3 = X, ...

[Y1,Y2,Y3,...] = deal(X1,X2,X3,...) is the same as Y1 = X1; Y2 = X2;
Y3 = X3; ...

Remarks

deal is most useful when used with cell arrays and structures via comma separated list expansion. Here are some useful constructions:

[S.field] = deal(X) sets all the fields with the name field in the structure array S to the value X. If S doesn't exist, use [S(1:m).field] = deal(X).

[X{:}] = deal(A.field) copies the values of the field with name field to the cell array X. If X doesn't exist, use [X{1:m}] = deal(A.field).

[Y1,Y2,Y3,...] = deal(X{:}) copies the contents of the cell array X to the separate variables Y1,Y2,Y3,...

[Y1,Y2,Y3,...] = deal(S.field) copies the contents of the fields with the name field to separate variables Y1,Y2,Y3,...

Examples

Use deal to copy the contents of a 4-element cell array into four separate output variables.

• C = {rand(3) ones(3,1) eye(3) zeros(3,1)};
  [a,b,c,d] = deal(C{:})
  
  a =
  
      0.9501   0.4860   0.4565
      0.2311   0.8913   0.0185
      0.6068   0.7621   0.8214
  
  b =
  
      1
      1
      1
  
  c =
  
      1   0   0
      0   1   0
      0   0   1
  
  d =
  
      0
      0
      0
  

Use deal to obtain the contents of all the name fields in a structure array:

• A.name = 'Pat'; A.number = 176554;
  A(2).name = 'Tony'; A(2).number = 901325;
  [name1,name2] = deal(A(:).name)
  
  name1 =
  
  Pat
  
  name2 =
  
  Tony