Big struct variable to be shared by multiple functions/procedures. Global variable or not?

Hi,

so I have a case when I have a potentially very large struct type variable which is shared by many functions and/or procedures. I am fully aware of the general allergy towards global variables in any programming community, but I am wondering if this could be an exception. Should I pass big structs as arguments to functions, or let functions operate on a shared global variable? Or is there a 3rd way

Best,

D

[Chunru]

You may consider to use class to share data among functions.

[Luca Ferro]

or even save the struct in a .mat file and then load it from within the functions without passing it as an argument

Answer 1

[Matt J]

but I am wondering if this could be an exception

I am not sure why you think it would be an exception. A big advantage of packing a large amount of data into a struct is to make it easier to pass that data around to many functions. It allows you to avoid having a huge list of input arguments in the functions' calling syntax. Using a global would almost defeat the purpose of containing things in a struct.

In any case, there are other alternatives to a global, if you really don't want to include the struct in your calling syntax. You could, for example, nest your functions and make your struct an externally scoped variable,

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/matlab_prog/nested-functions.html#f4-73993