--- /dev/null
+## Copyright (C) 2000 Etienne Grossmann <etienne@egdn.net>
+## Copyright (C) 2000 Paul Kienzle <pkienzle@users.sf.net>
+## Copyright (C) 2012 Olaf Till <i7tiol@t-online.de>
+##
+## This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
+## the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
+## Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later
+## version.
+##
+## This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
+## ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
+## FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more
+## details.
+##
+## You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with
+## this program; if not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+## -*- texinfo -*-
+## @deftypefn {Function File} {} @var{s} = setfields(@var{s},@var{key},@var{value},...)
+## Sets @var{s}.@var{key1} = @var{value1}, @var{s}.@var{key2} = @var{value2}, etc, finally
+## returning s.
+## For some compatibility and flexibility.
+## @seealso{cmpstruct, fields, rmfield, isstruct, getfields, isfield,struct}
+## @end deftypefn
+
+function s = setfields (s, varargin)
+
+ if ((nargs = nargin ()) == 0)
+ s = struct ();
+ elseif (all (size (s) <= 1))
+ if (rem (nargs, 2))
+ pairs = reshape (varargin, 2, []);
+ if (! iscellstr (pairs(1, :)))
+ error ("setfields: called with non-string key");
+ endif
+ if (isempty (s))
+ s = struct (); # might have been an empty array
+ endif
+ s = cell2fields (pairs(2, :), pairs(1, :), 2, s);
+ else
+ error ("setfields: expected struct, key1, val1, key2, val2, ...");
+ endif
+ else
+ error ("structure must be scalar or empty");
+ endif
+
+%!assert (setfields ({}, 'key', 'value'), struct ('key', 'value'));