Re: st: In Mata: Referring to an instance of a class inside an external function?

[Aljar Meesters <aljar.meesters@gmail.com>]

Dear Yutao,

I needed to adjust your example example a bit (see below) in order to
run it, but than it works as expected (Stata 12.1).
In your example you made a typo (This -> this), maybe this causes the
strange result in your actual situation as well.
Best,

 Aljar

//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
mata

// start class definition
class SomeClass {
    pointer scalar P
    void new()
    void ShowPointer()
    void CallExternalFunction() // Added
}
void function SomeClass::new() {
    P=&this   // This -> this

}


void function SomeClass::ShowPointer() {
    P
    eltype(*P)
}
void function SomeClass::CallExternalFunction() {
    AnExternalFunction(P)
}
// external function definition
void function AnExternalFunction(pointer scalar Pointer) {
    Pointer
    eltype(*Pointer)
}
// an instance
C=SomeClass()
C.ShowPointer()
// **** this prints out:
// **** an address
// **** "class"
C.CallExternalFunction()
// **** this prints out:
// **** the same address
// **** "class"
end
//--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


2013/4/5 YutaoSun <yutao.sun.statalist@outlook.com>
>
> Dear users,
>
> I have a tricky question about OOP in Mata. Here is the thing, I have written a class (let's call it "C"), and several EXTERNAL functions. sometimes In the external functions, I need to refer to the instance of "C".
>
> I tried This: I put a pointer (let's call it "P") as a member variable of the class and it always points to -&this- and I send the pointer into the external function that needs to refer to the class. When I type "P" in the external function, it gives an address (of course because it's a pointer) and this address is exactly the same as what shows up on the screen when I type "P" in a method of "C". However, when I realize the pointer (i.e. use -(*P)-) inside the external function, it gives "0x0" which I believe is a pointer to "NULL". Here is my code (a piece of pesudo code because the actual situation is a lot complicated than what I explained here).
>
> //--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> // start class definition
> class SomeClass {
>     pointer scalar P
>
>     void new()
>     void ShowPointer()
> }
> void function SomeClass::new() {
>     P=&This
> }
> void function SomeClass::ShowPointer() {
>     P
>     eltype(*P)
> }
> void function SomeClass::CallExternalFunction() {
>     AnExternalFunction(P)
> }
> // external function definition
> void function AnExternalFunction(pointer scalar Pointer) {
>     Pointer
>     eltype(*Pointer)
> }
> // an instance
> C=SomeClass()
> C.ShowPointer()
> // **** this prints out:
> // **** an address
> // **** "class"
> C.CallExternalFunction()
> // **** this prints out:
> // **** the same address
> // **** "pointer"
> //--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Does anyone possibly know what's wrong and how to make this happen, or there is a protective machanism going on in Mata?
> *
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