Panel

Panel UI container

• 

Description

A panel UI container groups UI components. Use the Panel object to modify the appearance and behavior of a panel after you create it.

Creation

Create a panel in an app using the uipanel function.

Properties

Title

Title — Title

character vector | string scalar | categorical array

Title, specified as a character vector, string scalar, or categorical array. If you specify this property as a categorical array, MATLAB^® displays only the first element in the array.

MATLAB does not interpret a vertical slash ('|') character as a line break, it displays as a vertical slash in the title.

If you want to specify a Unicode^® character, pass the Unicode decimal code to the char function. For example, ['Multiples of ' char(960)] displays as Multiples of π.

TitlePosition — Location of title

'lefttop' (default) | 'centertop' | 'righttop'

Location of the title, specified as 'lefttop', 'centertop', or 'righttop'.

Color and Styling

ForegroundColor — Title color

RGB triplet | hexadecimal color code | 'r' | 'g' | 'b' | ...

Title color, specified as an RGB triplet, a hexadecimal color code, or one of the color options listed in the table.

RGB triplets and hexadecimal color codes are useful for specifying custom colors.

• An RGB triplet is a three-element row vector whose elements specify the intensities of the red, green, and blue components of the color. The intensities must be in the range [0,1]; for example, [0.4 0.6 0.7].

• A hexadecimal color code is a character vector or a string scalar that starts with a hash symbol (#) followed by three or six hexadecimal digits, which can range from 0 to F. The values are not case sensitive. Thus, the color codes "#FF8800", "#ff8800", "#F80", and "#f80" are equivalent.

Alternatively, you can specify some common colors by name. This table lists the named color options, the equivalent RGB triplets, and hexadecimal color codes.

Color Name	Short Name	RGB Triplet	Hexadecimal Color Code	Appearance
"red"	"r"	[1 0 0]	"#FF0000"
"green"	"g"	[0 1 0]	"#00FF00"
"blue"	"b"	[0 0 1]	"#0000FF"
"cyan"	"c"	[0 1 1]	"#00FFFF"
"magenta"	"m"	[1 0 1]	"#FF00FF"
"yellow"	"y"	[1 1 0]	"#FFFF00"
"black"	"k"	[0 0 0]	"#000000"
"white"	"w"	[1 1 1]	"#FFFFFF"

This table lists the default color palettes for plots in the light and dark themes.

Palette	Palette Colors
"gem" — Light theme default Before R2025a: Most plots use these colors by default.
"glow" — Dark theme default

You can get the RGB triplets and hexadecimal color codes for these palettes using the orderedcolors and rgb2hex functions. For example, get the RGB triplets for the "gem" palette and convert them to hexadecimal color codes.

RGB = orderedcolors("gem");
H = rgb2hex(RGB);

Before R2023b: Get the RGB triplets using RGB = get(groot,"FactoryAxesColorOrder").

Before R2024a: Get the hexadecimal color codes using H = compose("#%02X%02X%02X",round(RGB*255)).

BackgroundColor — Background color

RGB triplet | hexadecimal color code | 'r' | 'g' | 'b' | ...

Background color, specified as an RGB triplet, a hexadecimal color code, or one of the color options listed in the table.

RGB triplets and hexadecimal color codes are useful for specifying custom colors.

• An RGB triplet is a three-element row vector whose elements specify the intensities of the red, green, and blue components of the color. The intensities must be in the range [0,1]; for example, [0.4 0.6 0.7].

• A hexadecimal color code is a character vector or a string scalar that starts with a hash symbol (#) followed by three or six hexadecimal digits, which can range from 0 to F. The values are not case sensitive. Thus, the color codes "#FF8800", "#ff8800", "#F80", and "#f80" are equivalent.

Alternatively, you can specify some common colors by name. This table lists the named color options, the equivalent RGB triplets, and hexadecimal color codes.

Color Name	Short Name	RGB Triplet	Hexadecimal Color Code	Appearance
"red"	"r"	[1 0 0]	"#FF0000"
"green"	"g"	[0 1 0]	"#00FF00"
"blue"	"b"	[0 0 1]	"#0000FF"
"cyan"	"c"	[0 1 1]	"#00FFFF"
"magenta"	"m"	[1 0 1]	"#FF00FF"
"yellow"	"y"	[1 1 0]	"#FFFF00"
"black"	"k"	[0 0 0]	"#000000"
"white"	"w"	[1 1 1]	"#FFFFFF"

This table lists the default color palettes for plots in the light and dark themes.

Palette	Palette Colors
"gem" — Light theme default Before R2025a: Most plots use these colors by default.
"glow" — Dark theme default

You can get the RGB triplets and hexadecimal color codes for these palettes using the orderedcolors and rgb2hex functions. For example, get the RGB triplets for the "gem" palette and convert them to hexadecimal color codes.

RGB = orderedcolors("gem");
H = rgb2hex(RGB);

Before R2023b: Get the RGB triplets using RGB = get(groot,"FactoryAxesColorOrder").

Before R2024a: Get the hexadecimal color codes using H = compose("#%02X%02X%02X",round(RGB*255)).

BorderType — Panel border

'line' (default) | 'none'

Panel border, specified as 'line' or 'none'.

BorderWidth — Border width

1 (default) | positive integer value

Border width, specified as a positive integer value. The unit of measurement is pixels.

BorderColor — Border color

RGB triplet | hexadecimal color code | 'r' | 'g' | 'b' | ...

Border color, specified as an RGB triplet, a hexadecimal color code, or one of the color options listed in the table.

RGB triplets and hexadecimal color codes are useful for specifying custom colors.

• An RGB triplet is a three-element row vector whose elements specify the intensities of the red, green, and blue components of the color. The intensities must be in the range [0,1]; for example, [0.4 0.6 0.7].

• A hexadecimal color code is a character vector or a string scalar that starts with a hash symbol (#) followed by three or six hexadecimal digits, which can range from 0 to F. The values are not case sensitive. Thus, the color codes "#FF8800", "#ff8800", "#F80", and "#f80" are equivalent.

Alternatively, you can specify some common colors by name. This table lists the named color options, the equivalent RGB triplets, and hexadecimal color codes.

Color Name	Short Name	RGB Triplet	Hexadecimal Color Code	Appearance
"red"	"r"	[1 0 0]	"#FF0000"
"green"	"g"	[0 1 0]	"#00FF00"
"blue"	"b"	[0 0 1]	"#0000FF"
"cyan"	"c"	[0 1 1]	"#00FFFF"
"magenta"	"m"	[1 0 1]	"#FF00FF"
"yellow"	"y"	[1 1 0]	"#FFFF00"
"black"	"k"	[0 0 0]	"#000000"
"white"	"w"	[1 1 1]	"#FFFFFF"

This table lists the default color palettes for plots in the light and dark themes.

Palette	Palette Colors
"gem" — Light theme default Before R2025a: Most plots use these colors by default.
"glow" — Dark theme default

You can get the RGB triplets and hexadecimal color codes for these palettes using the orderedcolors and rgb2hex functions. For example, get the RGB triplets for the "gem" palette and convert them to hexadecimal color codes.

RGB = orderedcolors("gem");
H = rgb2hex(RGB);

Before R2023b: Get the RGB triplets using RGB = get(groot,"FactoryAxesColorOrder").

Before R2024a: Get the hexadecimal color codes using H = compose("#%02X%02X%02X",round(RGB*255)).

Font

FontName — Font name

system supported font name

Font name, specified as a system supported font name. The default font depends on the specific operating system and locale.

If the specified font is not available, then MATLAB uses the best match among the fonts available on the system where the app is running.

Example: 'Arial'

FontSize — Font size

positive number

Font size, specified as a positive number. The FontUnits property specifies the units. The default size is system-dependent.

Example: 12

Example: 12.5

FontWeight — Font weight

'normal' (default) | 'bold'

Font weight, specified as one of these values:

• 'normal' — Default weight as defined by the particular font

• 'bold' — Thicker character outlines than 'normal'

Not all fonts have a bold font weight. For fonts that do not, specifying 'bold' results in the normal font weight.

FontAngle — Font angle

'normal' (default) | 'italic'

Font angle, specified as 'normal' or 'italic'. Not all fonts have an italic font angle. For fonts that do not, specifying 'italic' results in the normal font angle.

FontUnits — Font units

'pixels' | 'points' | 'normalized' | 'inches' | 'centimeters'

Font units, specified as one of the values from this table.

Units Value	Description
'pixels' (default in uifigure-based apps)	Pixels. On Windows® and Macintosh systems, the size of a pixel is 1/96th of an inch. This size is independent of your system resolution. On Linux® systems, the size of a pixel is determined by your system resolution.
'points' (default in figure-based apps)	Points. One point is 1/72nd of an inch.
'normalized'	Normalized values for specifying the font size as a fraction of the height. When you resize a UI component, MATLAB scales the displayed font to maintain that fraction.
'inches'	Inches.
'centimeters'	Centimeters.

Interactivity

Visible — State of visibility

'on' (default) | on/off logical value

State of visibility, specified as 'on' or 'off', or as numeric or logical 1 (true) or 0 (false). A value of 'on' is equivalent to true, and 'off' is equivalent to false. Thus, you can use the value of this property as a logical value. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.

• 'on' — Display the object.

• 'off' — Hide the object without deleting it. You still can access the properties of an invisible UI component.

To make your app start faster, set the Visible property to 'off' for all components that do not need to appear at startup.

Changing the size of an invisible container triggers the SizeChangedFcn callback when it becomes visible.

Changing the Visible property of a container does not change the values of the Visible properties of child components. This is true even though hiding the container causes the child components to be hidden.

Enable — Operational state

'on' (default) | on/off logical value

Operational state, specified as 'on' or 'off', or as numeric or logical 1 (true) or 0 (false). A value of 'on' is equivalent to true, and 'off' is equivalent to false. Thus, you can use the value of this property as a logical value. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.

• If you set this property to 'on', the app user can interact with the component.

• If you set this property to 'off', the component appears dimmed, indicating that the app user cannot interact with it, and that it will not trigger a callback.

Changing the value of the Enable property for a panel does not change the value of the Enable property for UI components contained within that panel.

Tooltip — Tooltip

'' (default) | character vector | cell array of character vectors | string array | 1-D categorical array

Tooltip, specified as a character vector, cell array of character vectors, string array, or 1-D categorical array. Use this property to display a message when the user hovers the pointer over the component at run time. The tooltip displays even when the component is disabled. To display multiple lines of text, specify a cell array of character vectors or a string array. Each element in the array becomes a separate line of text. If you specify this property as a categorical array, MATLAB uses the values in the array, not the full set of categories.

Scrollable — Ability to scroll

'off' (default) | on/off logical value

Ability to scroll, specified as 'off' or 'on', or as numeric or logical 1 (true) or 0 (false). A value of 'on' is equivalent to true, and 'off' is equivalent to false. Thus, you can use the value of this property as a logical value. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.

Setting this property to 'on' enables scrolling within the container. However, there are additional requirements:

• The child components in the container must occupy a larger area than the container can display at one time.

• Components that do not fit in the container must be above or to the right of the container. You cannot scroll to components that are below or to the left of the container.

• If the container contains a grid layout manager, the Scrollable property of the container has no effect. To enable scrolling, instead set the Scrollable property of the GridLayout object to 'on'.

Certain types of charts and axes do not support scrollable containers. However, you can place the chart or axes in a nonscrollable panel, and then place the panel in the scrollable container. For more information, see Display Graphics in App Designer.

ContextMenu — Context menu

empty GraphicsPlaceholder array (default) | ContextMenu object

Context menu, specified as a ContextMenu object created using the uicontextmenu function. Use this property to display a context menu when you right-click on a component.

Position

Position — Location and size of panel, including borders and title

[left bottom width height]

Location and size of the panel, including borders and title, specified as a four-element vector of the form [left bottom width height]. This table describes each element in the vector.

Element	Description
left	Distance from the inner left edge of the parent container to the outer left edge of the panel
bottom	Distance from the inner bottom edge of the parent container to the outer bottom edge of the panel
width	Distance between the right and left outer edges of the panel
height	Distance between the top and bottom outer edges of the panel

All measurements are in units specified by the Units property.

The Position values are relative to the drawable area of the parent container. The drawable area is the area inside the borders of the container and does not include the area occupied by decorations such as a menu bar or title.

Note

If the panel is parented to a grid layout manager, the value of the Position property is not immediately updated. To use the Position value to resize the panel children relative to the panel size, use a SizeChangedFcn callback.

InnerPosition — Location and size of panel, excluding borders and title

Read-only: [left bottom width height]

This property is read-only.

Location and size of the panel, excluding borders and title, returned as a four-element vector of the form [left bottom width height]. This table describes each element in the vector.

Value	Description
left	Distance from the inner left edge of the parent container to the inner left edge of the panel.
bottom	Distance from the inner bottom edge of the parent container to the inner bottom edge of the panel.
width	Distance between the inner edges of the panel’s right and left borders.
height	Distance between the inner edges of the panel’s top and bottom borders. This distance excludes the title, if it exists.

All measurements are in units specified by the Units property.

Note

These are some important points to consider when using the InnerPosition property:

• InnerPosition values are affected by the presence (or absence) of a title, the font characteristics, and the BorderType.

• InnerPosition values are relative to the parent container’s drawable area. The drawable area is the area inside the borders of the container and does not include the area occupied by the title.

OuterPosition — Location and size of panel, including borders and title

[left bottom width height]

Location and size of the panel, including borders and title, specified as a four-element vector of the form [left bottom width height]. All measurements are in units specified by the Units property.

This property value is identical to the Position property value.

Units — Units of measurement

'pixels' | 'normalized' | 'inches' | 'centimeters' | 'points' | 'characters'

Units of measurement, specified as one of the values in this table.

Units Value	Description
'pixels' (default in uifigure-based apps)	On Windows and Macintosh systems, the size of a pixel is 1/96th of an inch. This size is independent of your system resolution. On Linux systems, the size of a pixel is determined by your system resolution.
'normalized' (default in figure-based apps)	These units are normalized with respect to the parent container. The lower-left corner of the container maps to (0,0) and the upper-right corner maps to (1,1).
'inches'	Inches.
'centimeters'	Centimeters.
'points'	Points. One point equals 1/72nd of an inch.
'characters'	These units are based on the default uicontrol font of the graphics root object: Character width = width of the letter x. Character height = distance between the baselines of two lines of text. To access the default uicontrol font, use get(groot,'defaultuicontrolFontName') or set(groot,'defaultuicontrolFontName').

The recommended value is 'pixels', because most MATLAB app building functionality measures distances in pixels. You can create an object that rescales based on the size of the parent container by parenting the object to a grid layout manager created using the uigridlayout function. For more information, see Lay Out Apps Programmatically.

AutoResizeChildren — Automatically resize children

on/off logical value

Automatically resize children, specified as 'on' or 'off', or as numeric or logical 1 (true) or 0 (false). A value of 'on' is equivalent to true, and 'off' is equivalent to false. Thus, you can use the value of this property as a logical value. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.

• 'on' — Child components automatically resize when the container resizes. This value is the default value for panels in figures created using the uifigure function.

• 'off' — Child components do not resize. This value is the default value for panels in figures created using the figure function.

The AutoResizeChildren property affects direct children of the container, not children inside nested containers.

To customize the resize behavior, set the AutoResizeChildren property to 'off' and create a SizeChangedFcn callback for the container. For more information, see Manage App Resize Behavior Programmatically.

To disable resizing of an app, set the Resize property of the figure to 'off'.

It is recommended to specify AutoResizeChildren as 'on' only in apps that are laid out using pixel units. Enabling automatic resizing in apps that are laid out using non-pixel units might cause unexpected behavior.

Layout — Layout options

empty LayoutOptions array (default) | GridLayoutOptions object

Layout options, specified as a GridLayoutOptions object. This property specifies options for components that are children of grid layout containers. If the component is not a child of a grid layout container (for example, it is a child of a figure or panel), then this property is empty and has no effect. However, if the component is a child of a grid layout container, you can place the component in the desired row and column of the grid by setting the Row and Column properties on the GridLayoutOptions object.

For example, this code places a panel in the third row and second column of its parent grid.

g = uigridlayout([4 3]);
p = uipanel(g);
p.Layout.Row = 3;
p.Layout.Column = 2;

To make the panel span multiple rows or columns, specify the Row or Column property as a two-element vector. For example, this panel spans columns 2 through 3:

p.Layout.Column = [2 3];

Callbacks

SizeChangedFcn — Size change callback

'' (default) | function handle | cell array | character vector

Size change callback, specified as one of these values:

• A function handle.

• A cell array in which the first element is a function handle. Subsequent elements in the cell array are the arguments to pass to the callback function.

• A character vector containing a valid MATLAB expression (not recommended). MATLAB evaluates this expression in the base workspace.

Define this callback to customize the app layout when the size of this container changes (e.g., when the user resizes the window). In it, write code to adjust the Position property of the child components.

Note

The SizeChangedFcn callback will not execute unless the AutoResizeChildren property of this container is set to 'off'. In App Designer, you can make the SizeChangedFcn executable by selecting the container and clearing the AutoResizeChildren check box in the component tab of the Component Browser.

The SizeChangedFcn callback executes when:

• This container becomes visible for the first time.

• This container is visible while its size changes.

• This container becomes visible for the first time after its size changes. This situation occurs when the size changes while the container is invisible, and then it becomes visible later.

Other important points to consider when defining a SizeChangedFcn callback:

• Consider delaying the display of this container until after all the variables that the SizeChangedFcn uses are defined. This practice can prevent the SizeChangedFcn callback from returning an error. To delay the display of the container, set its Visible property to 'off'. Then, set the Visible property to 'on' after you define the variables that your SizeChangedFcn callback uses.

• If your app contains nested containers, they resize from the inside out.

• To access the container that is resizing from within the SizeChangedFcn, refer to the source object (the first input argument in the callback) or use the gcbo function.

Alternate ways to specify resize behavior are to create a GridLayout object or use the auto-reflow options in App Designer. These options can be easier to use than SizeChangedFcn callbacks. However, there are some advantages that SizeChangedFcn callbacks have over these options. For example:

• Resizing a component up to a minimum or maximum size that you define.

• Implementing non-linear resize behaviors.

ButtonDownFcn — Button-press callback function

'' (default) | function handle | cell array | character vector

Button-press callback function, specified as one of these values:

• A function handle.

• A cell array in which the first element is a function handle. Subsequent elements in the cell array are the arguments to pass to the callback function.

• A character vector containing a valid MATLAB expression (not recommended). MATLAB evaluates this expression in the base workspace.

For more information about specifying a callback property value as a function handle, cell array, or character vector, see Specify a Callback Function.

The ButtonDownFcn callback is a function that executes when the user clicks a mouse button within the container.

CreateFcn — Creation function

'' (default) | function handle | cell array | character vector

Object creation function, specified as one of these values:

• Function handle.

• Cell array in which the first element is a function handle. Subsequent elements in the cell array are the arguments to pass to the callback function.

• Character vector containing a valid MATLAB expression (not recommended). MATLAB evaluates this expression in the base workspace.

For more information about specifying a callback as a function handle, cell array, or character vector, see Callbacks in App Designer.

This property specifies a callback function to execute when MATLAB creates the object. MATLAB initializes all property values before executing the CreateFcn callback. If you do not specify the CreateFcn property, then MATLAB executes a default creation function.

Setting the CreateFcn property on an existing component has no effect.

If you specify this property as a function handle or cell array, you can access the object that is being created using the first argument of the callback function. Otherwise, use the gcbo function to access the object.

DeleteFcn — Deletion function

'' (default) | function handle | cell array | character vector

Object deletion function, specified as one of these values:

• Function handle.

• Cell array in which the first element is a function handle. Subsequent elements in the cell array are the arguments to pass to the callback function.

• Character vector containing a valid MATLAB expression (not recommended). MATLAB evaluates this expression in the base workspace.

For more information about specifying a callback as a function handle, cell array, or character vector, see Callbacks in App Designer.

This property specifies a callback function to execute when MATLAB deletes the object. MATLAB executes the DeleteFcn callback before destroying the properties of the object. If you do not specify the DeleteFcn property, then MATLAB executes a default deletion function.

If you specify this property as a function handle or cell array, you can access the object that is being deleted using the first argument of the callback function. Otherwise, use the gcbo function to access the object.

Callback Execution Control

Interruptible — Callback interruption

'on' (default) | on/off logical value

Callback interruption, specified as 'on' or 'off', or as numeric or logical 1 (true) or 0 (false). A value of 'on' is equivalent to true, and 'off' is equivalent to false. Thus, you can use the value of this property as a logical value. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.

This property determines if a running callback can be interrupted. There are two callback states to consider:

• The running callback is the currently executing callback.

• The interrupting callback is a callback that tries to interrupt the running callback.

MATLAB determines callback interruption behavior whenever it executes a command that processes the callback queue. These commands include drawnow, figure, uifigure, getframe, waitfor, and pause.

If the running callback does not contain one of these commands, then no interruption occurs. MATLAB first finishes executing the running callback, and later executes the interrupting callback.

If the running callback does contain one of these commands, then the Interruptible property of the object that owns the running callback determines if the interruption occurs:

• If the value of Interruptible is 'off', then no interruption occurs. Instead, the BusyAction property of the object that owns the interrupting callback determines if the interrupting callback is discarded or added to the callback queue.

• If the value of Interruptible is 'on', then the interruption occurs. The next time MATLAB processes the callback queue, it stops the execution of the running callback and executes the interrupting callback. After the interrupting callback completes, MATLAB then resumes executing the running callback.

Note

Callback interruption and execution behave differently in these situations:

• If the interrupting callback is a DeleteFcn, CloseRequestFcn, or SizeChangedFcn callback, then the interruption occurs regardless of the Interruptible property value.

• If the running callback is currently executing the waitfor function, then the interruption occurs regardless of the Interruptible property value.

• If the interrupting callback is owned by a Timer object, then the callback executes according to schedule regardless of the Interruptible property value.

Note

When an interruption occurs, MATLAB does not save the state of properties or the display. For example, the object returned by the gca or gcf command might change when another callback executes.

BusyAction — Callback queuing

'queue' (default) | 'cancel'

Callback queuing, specified as 'queue' or 'cancel'. The BusyAction property determines how MATLAB handles the execution of interrupting callbacks. There are two callback states to consider:

• The running callback is the currently executing callback.

• The interrupting callback is a callback that tries to interrupt the running callback.

The BusyAction property determines callback queuing behavior only when both of these conditions are met:

• The running callback contains a command that processes the callback queue, such as drawnow, figure, uifigure, getframe, waitfor, or pause.

• The value of the Interruptible property of the object that owns the running callback is 'off'.

Under these conditions, the BusyAction property of the object that owns the interrupting callback determines how MATLAB handles the interrupting callback. These are possible values of the BusyAction property:

• 'queue' — Puts the interrupting callback in a queue to be processed after the running callback finishes execution.

• 'cancel' — Does not execute the interrupting callback.

BeingDeleted — Deletion status

Read-only: on/off logical value

This property is read-only.

Deletion status, returned as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.

MATLAB sets the BeingDeleted property to 'on' when the DeleteFcn callback begins execution. The BeingDeleted property remains set to 'on' until the component object no longer exists.

Check the value of the BeingDeleted property to verify that the object is not about to be deleted before querying or modifying it.

HitTest — Ability to become current object

'on' (default) | on/off logical value

Ability to become current object, specified as 'on' or 'off', or as numeric or logical 1 (true) or 0 (false). A value of 'on' is equivalent to true, and 'off' is equivalent to false. Thus, you can use the value of this property as a logical value. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.

• 'on' — Sets the current object to the Panel when the user clicks the component in the running app. Both the CurrentObject property of the Figure and the gco function return the Panel as the current object.

• 'off' — Sets the current object to be the closest ancestor of the Panel whose HitTest is 'on' when the user clicks the component in the running app.

Parent/Child

Parent — Parent container

Figure object (default) | Panel object | Tab object | ButtonGroup object | GridLayout object

Parent container, specified as a Figure object or one of its child containers: Tab, Panel, ButtonGroup, or GridLayout. If no container is specified, MATLAB calls the figure function to create a new Figure object that serves as the parent container.

Children — Panel children

empty GraphicsPlaceholder array (default) | 1-D array of component objects

Panel child objects, returned as an empty GraphicsPlaceholder or a 1-D array of component objects. The children of a Panel can be any component object, including another Panel.

You cannot add or remove child components using the Children property. Use this property to view the list of children or to reorder the children. The order of the child objects in this array reflects the front-to-back stacking order of the components on the screen.

To add a child object to this list, set the Parent property of the child object to the Panel object.

HandleVisibility — Visibility of object handle

'on' (default) | 'callback' | 'off'

Visibility of the object handle, specified as 'on', 'callback', or 'off'.

This property controls the visibility of the object in its parent's list of children. When an object is not visible in its parent's list of children, it is not returned by functions that obtain objects by searching the object hierarchy or querying properties. These functions include get, findobj, clf, and close. Objects are valid even if they are not visible. If you can access an object, you can set and get its properties, and pass it to any function that operates on objects.

HandleVisibility Value	Description
'on'	The object is always visible.
'callback'	The object is visible from within callbacks or functions invoked by callbacks, but not from within functions invoked from the command line. This option blocks access to the object at the command-line, but allows callback functions to access it.
'off'	The object is invisible at all times. This option is useful for preventing unintended changes to the UI by another function. Set the HandleVisibility to 'off' to temporarily hide the object during the execution of that function.

Identifiers

Type — Type of graphics object

Read-only: 'uipanel'

This property is read-only.

Type of graphics object, returned as 'uipanel'.

Tag — Object identifier

'' (default) | character vector | string scalar

Object identifier, specified as a character vector or string scalar. You can specify a unique Tag value to serve as an identifier for an object. When you need access to the object elsewhere in your code, you can use the findobj function to search for the object based on the Tag value.

UserData — User data

[] (default) | array

User data, specified as any MATLAB array. For example, you can specify a scalar, vector, matrix, cell array, character array, table, or structure. Use this property to store arbitrary data on an object.

If you are working in App Designer, create public or private properties in the app to share data instead of using the UserData property. For more information, see Share Data Within App Designer Apps.

Object Functions

scroll	Scroll to location within UI component
isInScrollView	Determine if component is visible in scrollable container

Examples

Set and Access Panel Property Values

Create a panel in a UI figure, and customize its appearance by specifying property values.

fig = uifigure;
p = uipanel(fig, ...
    "Title","Data", ...
    "BackgroundColor","white");

Determine the panel location and size.

s = p.Position

s = 1×4

    20    20   260   221

Update the width and height of the panel by modifying the third and fourth elements of the panel Position property.

p.Position(3:4) = [150 380];

Create Scrollable Panel

Create a panel in a UI figure. Add six UI components to the panel. The first two components are not visible because they lie outside the upper border of the panel.

fig = uifigure;
p = uipanel(fig,"Position",[20 20 196 135]);
ef1 = uieditfield(p,"Text","Position",[11 165 140 22],"Value","First Name");
ef2 = uieditfield(p,"Text","Position",[11 140 140 22],"Value","Last Name");
ef3 = uieditfield(p,"Text","Position",[11 115 140 22],"Value","Address");
dd = uidropdown(p,"Position",[11 90 140 22],"Items",["Male","Female"]);
cb = uicheckbox(p,"Position",[11 65 140 22],"Text","Member");
btn = uibutton(p,"Position",[11 40 140 22],"Text","Send");

Enable scrolling in the panel by setting the Scrollable property to "on". By default, the scroll bar is scrolled to the top of the panel.

p.Scrollable = "on";

Version History

Introduced before R2006a

R2025a: Panel title and border options have changed in figure-based apps

Panels created in apps created using the figure function have an updated appearance. Because of this update, certain title and border options have changed.

TitlePosition Property

Panel titles can appear only at the top of panels. As a result, these TitlePosition values have changes in behavior.

Value	R2024b and Earlier	Starting in R2025a	Recommended Value
'leftbottom'			Update your code to use 'lefttop' instead of'leftbottom' to reflect the panel title position.
'centerbottom'			Update your code to use 'centertop' instead of'centerbottom' to reflect the panel title position.
'rightbottom'			Update your code to use 'righttop' instead of'rightbottom' to reflect the panel title position.

BorderType Property

Visible panel borders always appear as a line. As a result, some BorderType values have changes in behavior. Specifying BorderType as any of the values in the table causes a warning. Additionally, the default BorderType value has changed from 'etchedin' to 'line'.

Value	R2024b	R2025a	Recommended Value
'etchedin'			Update your code to use 'line' instead of 'etchedin' to reflect the panel border type.
'etchedout'			Update your code to use 'line' instead of 'etchedout' to reflect the panel border type.
'beveledin'			Update your code to use 'line' instead of 'beveledin' to reflect the panel border type.
'beveledout'			Update your code to use 'line' instead of 'beveledout' to reflect the panel border type.

ShadowColor Property

As a result of the changes to the BorderType property, the ShadowColor property has no effect and warns if you set it. To specify the border color of a panel, use the BorderColor property instead.

The ShadowColor property no longer appears in the list returned by calling the get function on a Panel object.

R2025a: Set additional properties for panels in figure-based apps

Panel objects in apps created using the figure function include these additional properties:

• Tooltip

• Scrollable

• AutoResizeChildren

• Layout

• Enable

Previously, these properties were available only for Panel objects in apps created using the uifigure function.

R2023a: Change panel border color using BorderColor property, not HighlightColor

You can change the border color of a panel in both uifigure-based and figure-based apps by using the BorderColor property.

The BorderColor property is recommended over the HighlightColor property, which is supported only in figure-based apps. However, there are no plans to remove support for HighlightColor.

R2022b: Change panel border width in uifigure-based apps

In apps created in App Designer and using the uifigure function, use the BorderWidth property to change the border width of the panel.

R2020b: Turn interaction off and on

To control whether a panel responds to user interaction, use the Enable property. When the Enable property is set to 'on', you can interact with the panel and with UI components within it as long as they are enabled. When the Enable property is set to 'off', you cannot interact with the panel or its content.

The Enable property is supported only for panels in App Designer and uifigure-based apps.

R2020a: UIContextMenu property is not recommended

Starting in R2020a, using the UIContextMenu property to assign a context menu to a graphics object or UI component is not recommended. Use the ContextMenu property instead. The property values are the same.

There are no plans to remove support for the UIContextMenu property at this time. However, the UIContextMenu property no longer appears in the list returned by calling the get function on a graphics object or UI component.

R2015a: ResizeFcn property is not recommended

Starting in R2015a, using the ResizeFcn property to assign a callback function to resize a UI component is not recommended. Use the SizeChangedFcn property instead. The property values are the same.

There are no plans to remove support for the ResizeFcn property at this time. However, the ResizeFcn property no longer appears in the list returned by calling the get function on a UI component.

R2014b: Selected property is not recommended

Starting in R2014b, using the Selected property is not recommended. It no longer has any effect on objects of this type.

R2014b: SelectionHighlight property is not recommended

Starting in R2014b, using the SelectionHighlight property is not recommended. It no longer has any effect on objects of this type.

R2014b: Clipping property is not recommended

Starting in R2014b, using the Clipping property is not recommended. It no longer has any effect on objects of this type.