MATLAB supports loading libraries compiled for .NET 5 and higher, .

NET Core,
and the Microsoft® .NET Framework on the Microsoft Windows® platform only.
For details, see System Requirements for Using MATLAB Interface to .NET. For
information about .NET versions compatible with MATLAB, see MATLAB
Interfaces to Other Languages.

To determine if your system has a supported version, use the

NET.isNETSupported function.

.NET Data Types in MATLAB

Data conversion, pass data between MATLAB® and .NET
When you call a .NET method or function, MATLAB automatically converts most
primitive MATLAB arguments into .NET types. To pass an array of strings, use
the cell function. To pass arrays of other MATLAB types, use
the NET.createArray function. You cannot pass structure arrays, sparse
arrays, or complex numbers to .NET methods.

MATLAB automatically converts primitive .NET return types to equivalent MATLAB

types, if they exist. To convert a System.String object, call
the char function. If the .NET function returns an array, before using the data in
a MATLAB command, use the corresponding MATLAB numeric function for
rectangular arrays, or the cell function for jagged arrays. To convert a MATLAB
dictionary to a corresponding .NET object, call
the NET.createDictionary function.

Pass Data to .NET Objects

When you call a .NET method or function from MATLAB®, MATLAB converts
arguments into .NET types. MATLAB performs this conversion on each passed
argument, except for arguments that are already .NET objects. The following
topics provide information about passing specific data types to .NET methods.

For information about how MATLAB maps .NET types to MATLAB types, see Handle
Data Returned from .NET Objects.

Pass Primitive .NET Types

The following table shows the MATLAB base types for passed
arguments and the corresponding .NET types defined for input
arguments. Each row shows a MATLAB type followed by the possible
.NET argument matches, from left to right in order of closeness of
the match.
MATLAB Primitive Type Conversion Table

MATL Closest Type <————— Other Matching .NET Types —————> Least
AB Close Type
Type Preface Each .NET Type with System.
logical Boole Byte SByte Int16 UInt1 Int32 UInt Int UInt Sing Doub Obje
an 6 32 64 64 le le ct

double Doubl Singl Deci Int64 UInt6 Int32 UInt Int UInt SByt Byte Obje
e e mal 4 32 16 16 e ct

single Single Doub Deci Obje

le mal ct

int8 SByte Int16 Int32 Int64 Singl Doub Obje

e le ct

uint8 Byte UInt1 UInt3 UInt6 Singl Doub Obje

6 2 4 e le ct

int16 Int16 Int32 Int64 Singl Doub Obje

e le ct

uint16 UInt1 UInt3 UInt6 Singl Doub Obje

6 2 4 e le ct

int32 Int32 Int64 Singl Doub Obje

e le ct

uint32 UInt3 UInt6 Singl Doub Obje

2 4 e le ct

int64 Int64 Doub Objec

le t

uint64 UInt6 Doub Objec

4 le t

char Char Strin Objec

g t

string String Obje

ct

The following primitive .NET argument types do not have direct

MATLAB equivalent types. MATLAB passes these types as is:
 System.IntPtr
 System.UIntPtr
 System.Decimal
 enumerated types
Pass Cell Arrays

You can pass a cell array to a .NET property or method expecting an

array of System.Object or System.String arguments, as shown in
the following table.
MATLAB Cell Array Conversion Table

Closest Type <——— Other Matching .NET Types ———>

MATLAB Type
Least Close Type

Cell array of string System.String System.Object System.Obje

scalars and/or [] [] ct
character arrays

Cell array (no string or System.Object System.Object

character arrays) []
Elements of a cell can be any of the following supported types:
 Any non-sparse, non-complex built-in numeric type shown in
the MATLAB Primitive Type Conversion Table
 string
 char
 logical
 cell array
 .NET object
Pass Nonprimitive .NET Objects

When calling a method that has an argument of a particular .NET

class, pass an object that is an instance of that class or its derived
classes. You can create such an object using the class constructor,
or use an object returned by a member of the class. When a class
member returns a .NET object, MATLAB leaves it as a .NET object.
Use this object to interact with other class members.
Pass MATLAB String and Character Data

MATLAB automatically converts:

 char array to a .NET System.String object. To pass an array
of char arrays, create a cell array.
 string scalar to a .NET System.String object.
 Each string scalar in a string array to
a .NET System.String object. The string array is
converted to System.String[].
 String value <missing> to null.
 string.empty to System.String[] with size of 0.
Pass MATLAB Dictionary Data

Implicit Conversion

You can pass a MATLAB dictionary to a .NET method. For example,

suppose that you have a .NET method MyClass.SomeMethod that
takes a dictionary input argument.
mlDict = dictionary("a",1,"b",2);
MyClass.SomeMethod(mlDict);
MATLAB supports implicit conversion to these types:
 System.Collections.Dictionary<,>
 System.Collections.IDictionary<,>
 System.Collections.IReadOnlyDictionary<,>
 System.Collections.IDictionary
For the generic types (containing <,>), the keys and values must
match the destination type. For example, if a method
accepts Dictionary<int,int>, then you must pass a MATLAB
dictionary that maps an int32 key to an int32 value. MATLAB does
not convert the keys or values.
A MATLAB dictionary with entries of type cell can only be
converted to a .NET dictionary with entries of type System.Object.
Explicit Conversion

You can explicitly create a generic .NET dictionary from a MATLAB

dictionary by calling the NET.createDictionary function.
netDict = NET.createDictionary(mlDict);
MyClass.SomeMethod(netDict);
Pass System.Nullable Type

You can pass any of the following to a .NET method

with System.Nullable<ValueType> input arguments:
 Variableof the underlying <ValueType>
 null value, []
 System.Nullable<ValueType> object
When you pass a MATLAB variable of type ValueType, MATLAB
reads the signature and automatically converts your variable to
a System.Nullable<ValueType> object. For a complete list of
possible ValueType values accepted
for System.Nullable<ValueType>, refer to the MATLAB Primitive
Type Conversion Table.
For examples, see Pass System.Nullable Arguments.
Pass NULL Values

MATLAB uses empty double ([]) values for reference type

arguments.
Unsupported MATLAB Types

MATLAB does not support passing the following MATLAB types

to .NET methods:
 Structure arrays
 Sparse arrays
 Complex numbers
Choosing Method Signatures

MATLAB chooses the correct .NET method signature (including

constructor, static and nonstatic methods) based on the following
criteria.
When your MATLAB function calls a .NET method, MATLAB:
1. Checks to make sure that the object (or class, for a static
method) has a method by that name.
2. Determines whether the invocation passes the same
number of arguments of at least one method with that
name.
3. Makes sure that each passed argument can be converted
to the type defined for the method.
If all the preceding conditions are satisfied, MATLAB calls the
method.
In a call to an overloaded method, if there is more than one
candidate, MATLAB selects the one with arguments that best fit the
calling arguments, based on the MATLAB Primitive Type Conversion
Table. First, MATLAB rejects all methods that have any argument
types that are incompatible with the passed arguments. Among the
remaining methods, MATLAB selects the one with the highest fitness
value, which is the sum of the fitness values of all its arguments.
The fitness value for each argument is how close the MATLAB type
is to the .NET type. If two methods have the same fitness, MATLAB
chooses the first one defined in the class.
For class types, MATLAB chooses the method signature based on
the distance of the incoming class type to the expected .NET class
type. The closer the incoming type is to the expected type, the
better the match.
The rules for overloaded methods with optional arguments are
described in Determining Which Overloaded Method Is Invoked.
Example — Choosing a Method Signature

Open a methodsview window for the System.String class and look

at the entries for the Concat method:
import System.*
methodsview('System.String')
The Concat method takes one or more arguments. If the arguments
are of type System.String, the method concatenates the values.
For example, create two strings:
str1 = String('hello');
str2 = String('world');
When you type:
String.Concat(str1,str2)
MATLAB verifies the method Concat exists and looks for a signature
with two input arguments. The following table shows the two
signatures.

Name Return Type

Concat System.String RetVal

Concat System.String RetVal

Since str1 and str2 are of class System.String, MATLAB chooses

the second signature and displays:
ans =
helloworld
If the arguments are of type System.Object, the method displays
the string representations of the values. For example, create
two System.DateTime objects:
dt = DateTime.Today;
myDate = System.DateTime(dt.Year,3,1,11,32,5);
When you type:
String.Concat(dt,myDate)
MATLAB chooses the following signature,
since System.DateTime objects are derived from
the System.Object class.
Qualifiers Return Type

Static System.String RetVal

This Concat method first applies the ToString method to the

objects, then concatenates the strings. MATLAB displays information
like:
ans =
12/23/2008 12:00:00 AM3/1/2008 11:32:05 AM
Pass Arrays

For information about passing MATLAB arrays to .NET methods,

see Use Arrays with .NET Applications and Pass MATLAB Arrays as
Jagged Arrays.
How Array Dimensions Affect Conversion

The dimension of a .NET array is the number of subscripts required

to access an element of the array. To get the number of dimensions,
use the Rank property of the .NET System.Array type. The
dimensionality of a MATLAB array is the number of non-singleton
dimensions in the array.
MATLAB matches the array dimensionality with the .NET method
signature, as long as the dimensionality of the MATLAB array is
lower than or equal to the expected dimensionality. For example,
you can pass a scalar input to a method that expects a 2-D array.
For a MATLAB array with number of dimensions, N, if the .NET array
has fewer than N dimensions, the MATLAB conversion drops
singleton dimensions, starting with the first one, until the number of
remaining dimensions matches the number of dimensions in
the .NET array.
Converting a MATLAB Array to System.Object

You can pass a MATLAB array to a method that expects

a System.Object.
Pass MATLAB Arrays as Jagged Arrays

A MATLAB array is a rectangular array. .NET supports a jagged

array, which is an array of arrays. So the elements of a jagged array
can be of different dimensions and sizes.
Although .NET languages support jagged arrays, the term jagged is
not a language keyword. C# function signatures use multiple pairs
of square brackets ([][]) to represent a jagged array. In addition, a
jagged array can be nested ([][][]), multidimensional ([,]), or
nested with multidimensional elements (for example, [,,][,][]).
MATLAB automatically converts MATLAB arrays of numeric types to
the corresponding jagged array type. If the input argument is a
nonnumeric type or multidimensional, use
the NET.createArray function to create an array to pass as a
jagged array. For examples using NET.createArray, see Pass
Jagged Arrays.