GenericContainer has an interfacing to exchange data with matlab. To use the interface include

#include "GenericContainerInterface_matlab.hh"

compile and link with GenericContainerInterface_matlab.cc. The interface contains a set of functions to convert from GenericContainer to mxArray and the other way around.

The following code stored in mex_print_recursive.cc

#include "GenericContainer.hh"
#include "GenericContainerInterface_matlab.hh"
#include "mex.h"
 
#include <sstream>
 
namespace GC_namespace {
 
  extern "C"
  void
  mexFunction( int nlhs, mxArray       *plhs[],
               int nrhs, mxArray const *prhs[] ) {
    try {
      GenericContainer gc;
      mxArray_to_GenericContainer( prhs[0], gc );
      mexPrint(gc);
    }
    catch ( std::exception & exc ) {
      mexPrintf("Error: %s\n", exc.what() );
    }
    catch (...) {
      mexPrintf("Unknown error\n");
    }
  }
}

Implement a mex command that print a Matlab structure recursively on the console after the conversion to a mxArray_to_GenericContainer. After the compilation

> mex mex_print_recursive.cc GenericContainerInterface_matlab.cc -output print_recursive

Produce the Matlab command print_recursive so that the following MATLAB code:

S         = [ 1 0 2 9; 0 0 2 3; 2 0 0 0; 1 0 -2 -2 ];
S1        = [ 1 0 2 9; 0 0 2 3; 2+1i 0 0 0; 1 0 -2 -2 ];
A.vector  = [1,2,3,4];
A.string  = 'pippo';
A.strings = { 'pippo', 'pluto', 'paperino' };
A.struct1  = { 'paperino', [1 2], [1 2; 3 5] };
A.struct2  = { B, sparse(S), sparse(S1) };
 
print_recursive( A );

has the following output:

string: "pippo"
strings:
    0: "pippo"
    1: "pluto"
    2: "paperino"
struct1:
    0: "paperino"
    1: [ 1 2 ]
    2:
       1        2
       3        5
struct2:
    0:
        fieldA:
            0: 1
            1: 2
            2: 3
            3: "pippo"
        fieldB:
            [ 1 1 2 ]
        fieldC: "stringa"
    1:
        ir:
            [ 0 2 3 0 1 3 0 1 3 ]
        jc:
            [ 0 3 3 6 9 ]
        values:
            [ 1 2 1 2 2 -2 9 3 -2 ]
    2:
        ir:
            [ 0 2 3 0 1 3 0 1 3 ]
        jc:
            [ 0 3 3 6 9 ]
        values:
            [ (1, 0 ) (2, 1 ) (1, 0 ) (2, 0 ) (2, 0 ) (-2, 0 ) (9, 0 ) (3, 0 ) (-2, 0 ) ]
vector:
    [ 1 2 3 4 ]