Unable to perform assignment because dot indexing is not supported for variables of this type.

Hi this is my code,

experiments(1).num = 33;
experiments(1).code = 'x';
experiments(1).weights = [200.34 202.45];
experiments(1).height.feet = 5;
experiments(1).height.inches = 6;

experiments(2).num = 11;
experiments(2).code = 't';
experiments(2).weights = [111.45 111.11];
experiments(1).height.feet = 7;
experiments(1).height.inches = 2;

I get this error whenever I run it,

Unable to perform assignment because dot indexing is not supported

for variables of this type.

Error in experimentsinitialization (line 4)

experiments(1).height.feet = 5;

When I try to call height of experiments(1), I get this,

>> experiments(1).height

ans =

5 6

However, I must get something like this,

>> experiments(1).height

ans =

feet: 5

inches: 6

What should I replace? or add?

Thank you in advance!

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

The code you posted is self-consistent. However, in some earlier code, you set

experiments(1).height = [5 6]

and you did not remove that.

My guess is that you modified your code along the way, but you did not clear the experiments variable so it still has the old data around.

[Roxanne Esguerra]

yes, I did that prior to the code I have posted. So, do I need to make another script?

[Walter Roberson]

clear experiments

would remove that old data.

If you want to keep old data, but you want to convert height from being a vector of two elements, into being a struct with feet and inches, then

fi = experiments(1).height;
experiments(1).height = struct('feet', fi(1), 'inches', fi(2));

This would replace the entire experiments(1).height with a struct, and there is no problem replacing an entire variable.

[Roxanne Esguerra]

Thank you, I made another script and it worked :)