How can I index a MATLAB array returned by a function without first assigning it to a local variable?

Question

For example, if I want to read the middle value from magic(5), I can do so like this:

M = magic(5);
value = M(3,3);

to get

Answer 1

How do you feel about using undocumented features:

>> builtin('_paren', magic(5), 3, 3)               %# M(3,3)
ans =
    13

or for cell arrays:

>> builtin('_brace', num2cell(magic(5)), 3, 3)     %# C{3,3}
ans =
    13

Just like magic :)

---

UPDATE:

Bad news, the above hack doesn't work anymore in R2015b! That's fine, it was undocumented functionality and we cannot rely on it as a supported feature :)

For those wondering where to find this type of thing, look in the folder fullfile(matlabroot,'bin','registry'). There's a bunch of XML files there that list all kinds of goodies. Be warned that calling some of these functions directly can easily crash your MATLAB session.