setfield behavior changed?

[Frans Oliehoek]

Hi all,


Digging up some old code, it seems that I am using old syntax (?) to set 
field values. Roughly my problem is that I get this:


octave:1> s.a.b = 2
s =
  scalar structure containing the fields:
    a =
      scalar structure containing the fields:
        b =  2


octave:2> s = setfield(s,'a.b', 42)
s =
  scalar structure containing the fields:
    a =
      scalar structure containing the fields:
        b =  2
    a.b =  42



Clearly, I want to realize the behavior of (new syntax)

octave:3> s = setfield(s,'a', 'b', 42)
s =
  scalar structure containing the fields:
    a =
      scalar structure containing the fields:
        b =  42
    a.b =  42

However, if possible, I would not want to use the new syntax ('a.b' is 
passed in by a variable, and it could be 'c', or 'a.b.c', and I want all 
those cases to work without having to use different syntax...). Does 
anyone have a workaround?

Thanks!
-Frans