How to draw a figure with subplots which can pop up in a new window when I click at them?

Hi,all. How can we draw such a figure in which if you click at a subplot of the figure, that subplot will get enlarged and pop up in new figure window? What function shall be employed? Suppose we had a figure with 12 subplots, and if you click at any of the subplots, that subplots will be magnified and pop up in a new window. How can we make that? Thank you!

Answer 1

[emehmetcik]

Hi,

A simple way to do this is to use the button press callback function (ButtonDownFcn):

http://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/figure-properties.html

Here is an example:

clear 
close all
clc

x1 = 1 : 10;
y1 = randn(1, 10);

x2 = randn(10);
y2 = randn(10);

figure;
h1 = subplot(2, 1, 1);
plot(x1, y1);

h2 = subplot(2, 1, 2);
plot(x2, y2)

set(h1, 'ButtonDownFcn', {'PlotNewFigure', x1, y1, 123})
set(h2, 'ButtonDownFcn', {'PlotNewFigure', x2, y2, 456})

PlotNewFigure that I used in this code is a seperate function (saved in another m file).

function PlotNewFigure(varargin)

      figure(varargin{5});
      plot(varargin{3}, varargin{4})

end

[William]

Thank you!

I am sorry but I still have some questions need to be clarified:

1 .To ensure the compatibility of my programs,I want to know can this function still work in matlab 2009 or earlier Versions ?

2. What's the match relationships of variables between the set command line and the PlotNewFigure function? x1 is the second element of the cell array , {'PlotNewFigure', x1, y1, 123} ,in set command line .I am confused about why x1 becomes the third element in the input cell array varargin in the function PlotNewFigure?And so on to the variable y1,x2,y2 ,and the constant 123,456 .

3. I see function of this kind can be called by 3 formats followed in matlab help documentation.Which format does the command you provided belong to? Why the format of set command line you provided is so different? The three formats:

1) Specifying a Function Handle ,like " uicontrol('Style','slider','Callback',@display_slider_value) ";

2) Specifying a Cell Array,like " uicontrol('Style','pushbutton', 'Callback',{@pushbutton_callback,myvar}) ";

or 3) Specifying a String, like " uicontrol('Style','pushbutton','String','Plotline','Callback','plot(rand(20,3))') ";

Thanks a lot and I will be very appreciate your answers!

[emehmetcik]

1. Sorry I'm not sure about the compatibility issue as I don't have these versions. But I don't think there will be any issue, as it should be quite standard.

2. As you can see in the documentation, http://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/figure-properties.html

the ButtonDownFcn can be set to one of these:

'' (default) | function handle | cell array | string

*(The default is empty, so nothing happens when you click on it.

**If you use it with a function handle (e.g. set(h1, 'ButtonDownFcn', 'PlotNewFigure')) the specified function is called when you click on the figure, however with no input. Hence you need some other means to determine which subplot is clicked.

*The last one is to use a cell array, by specifying the function handle and the input arguments that are passed to this function. As explained here

http://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/creating_guis/write-callbacks-using-the-programmatic-workflow.html#brqowqm

and I am directly quoting :

_Callback Syntax

All callback functions that you reference as function handles or cell arrays must accept the at least two input arguments, hObject and callbackdata. All other input arguments must appear after hObject and callbackdata in the function definition.

The hObject argument is a handle to the UI component that triggered the callback. The callbackdata argument provides additional information to certain callback functions. For example, if the end user triggers the KeyPressFcn, then MATLAB provides information regarding the specific key (or combination of keys) that the end user pressed. If callbackdata is not available to the callback function, then MATLAB passes it as an empty array. The following table lists the callbacks and components that use callbackdata._

The first two inputs are reserved for hObject and callbackdata. Hence in the example code if you place a debug point in the callback function and write

set(varargin{1})

on the command line when the debug point is reached, you would access the object data (properties of the subplot you clicked on). And as explained in the documentation, the second argument is additional info for some specific callbacks (nothing for my example). Hence the inputs (x1, y1, 123) you pass on to the callback function using cell array, are the third, fourth and fifth inputs respectively.

3. The second type : Specifying a cell array : {@functionHandle, var1, var2, ...}. The set command I provided is not different at all I guess. The general usage of the set function is as follows:

set(objectHandle, propertyName1, propertyValue1, propertyName2, propertyValue2, ...)

The command I used;

set(h1, 'ButtonDownFcn', {'PlotNewFigure', x1, y1, 123})

The different seeming part may be the whole cell array being a single input. Also , instead of @function_handle, you can also use 'function_handle'.

[William]

Thank you very much for your patience! You are a good man and have done me a great favor.For your answers to my last question ,could I understand like this: @function_handle is equivalent to 'function_handle'? But @function_handle is the form like definition of anonymous functions and 'function_handle' is a string ,why can these two expressions become equivalent. Thank you again!

[emehmetcik]

What I meant by "instead of @function_handle, you can also use 'function_handle' " is that:

when setting a callback property, Matlab accepts either of these two declarations:

set(h1, 'callback', @foo)
set(h1, 'callback', 'foo')

(Same for ButtonDownFcn property)

set(h1, 'ButtonDownFcn', @foo)
set(h1, 'ButtonDownFcn', 'foo')

Otherwise as you mentioned, @foo and 'foo' are not equivalent expressions.

[William]

Thank you again!I understand it now with your help.

[Shawn Fernandes]

Hi,

The above solution is working for plot, but not working for imshow matrix, PFB code.

 function PlotNewFigure(varargin)
 if(varargin{6}==0)
    figure(varargin{5});
    plot(varargin{3}, varargin{4})
 end
 if(varargin{6}==1)
    figure(varargin{5});
    imshow(varargin{3})
 end
 if(varargin{6}==2)
    figure(varargin{5});
    imshow(varargin{3},jet(varargin{4}))
 end
 end

Answer 2

[maycon moreira]

Hi,

I can not apply the same method in my code, how do I do that?

A=imread('cam.png'); subplot(4,3,1) imshow(A) title('Image A'); B=imread('futurama.jpg'); subplot(4,3,2) imshow(B) title ('Image B');