Is it possible to check for existence of fields in nested structures with isfield in MATLAB 8.1 (R2013a)?

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I have the following structure
a.b.c = 1;
I know it is possible to search for the nested
isfield(a.b,'c')
But I would like to check for the existence of the field 'c' even when I am not sure that the field 'b' exists, e.g.
isfield(a,'b.c');

Accepted Answer

MathWorks Support Team
MathWorks Support Team on 25 Oct 2013
There is no MATLAB function to determine the existence of fields in nested structures. The only workaround is to check separately for the existence of 'b' and of 'c':
isfield(a, 'b') && isfield(a.b, 'c')

More Answers (1)

Steven Lord
Steven Lord on 16 Dec 2022
Another approach that uses neither eval nor repeated calls to isfield is to use getfield.
a.b.c = 1;
isNestedField(a, 'b.c')
ans = logical
1
isNestedField(a, 'b.d')
ans = logical
0
isNestedField(1:10, 'a')
ans = logical
0
function tf = isNestedField(s, thefields)
fieldlist = split(thefields, '.');
try
getfield(s, fieldlist{:});
tf = true;
catch
tf = false;
end
end

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