In Octave, containers.Map objects are handle objects that can be passed around by reference but always refer to the same object [1]. However, the only test for "equality" between containers.Map objects is isequal, which only tests if the objects' contents are equal. I need a test for equality that tells me if 2 variables refer to the same containers.Map object. The following code demonstrates the problem:
user@computer:~$ octave -q octave:1> original_map = containers.Map({'name'}, {'Alice'}); octave:2> copy_map = original_map; octave:3> new_map = containers.Map({'name'}, {'Alice'}); octave:4> isequal(original_map, copy_map) ans = 1 octave:5> isequal(original_map, new_map) ans = 1 octave:6> original_map('name') = 'Bob'; octave:7> isequal(original_map, copy_map) ans = 1 octave:8> isequal(original_map, new_map) ans = 0 octave:9> eq(new_map, original_map) error: eq method not defined for containers.Map class I am looking for a function/operator - call it eqtest - such that eqtest(original_map, copy_map) returns true and eqtest(original_map, new_map) returns false regardless of whether original_map and new_map have the same contents.
The best I have come up with on my own is:
function equality = eqtest(map1, map2) map1('testKey') = 'Alpha'; map2('testKey') = 'Beta'; equality = isequal(map1, map2); remove(map1, 'testKey'); remove(map2, 'testKey'); end This is horribly fragile and breaks if "UniformValues" is true and/or the map1/map2 values are not both char.
[1] - This is equivalent behavior to Matlab. However, Matlab allows the use of eq (or ==) to test if 2 containers.Map objects are the same object. Search Google on "octave test containers.map same object" and Google AI will give you abjectly wrong information on the topic.
idkey to the map when you create it which you specify as a unique identifier for that specific map? Then you can just compare the IDs