How to create a dynamic number of aligned checkboxes and edit textboxes and how to tag them? Order of input arguments in uicontrol?

Hey Guys,

i have to create a GUI that adapts to the users input! So if the user puts is a 5, i would like to have five aligned checkboxes and edit textboxes. The names of the static textboxes as well as the Tags of the checkboxes shall be dependent of the input number given by the user. And i woould like to pack it into a panel.

I created this code:

stages = 5;

fig = figure('Visible','off');
box = zeros(stages,1);
txtbox = zeros(stages,1);
panel = uipanel('parent',fig,...
    'Title','Choose stages to plot',... 
    'position',[.01 .05 .25 .95]);
A=zeros(stages,1);

for i = 1:stages

        box(i,1) = uicontrol('parent',panel,'style','checkbox',...
            'string',i,...
            'position',[20 360-i*25 40 20],...
            'callback','A(i,1)=1'); 

        txtbox = uicontrol(fig,'Style','text',...
                  'String','Select ',...
                  'Position',[100 360-i*25 40 20]);

end

set(fig,'Visible','on')

Some questions to it.

1) How can i put the static text into the panel and align it with the checkboxes? i cannot find the order of input arguments for uicontrol so i dont know where to put 'parent' and panel as arguments.

2) How can i tag the checkboxes according to the number...so first checkbox shall have the tag 'checkbox1', the second 'checkbox2' and so on....

3) Is it possible to make the GUI window adapt to the number of created checkboxes so that it resizes in order to make all checkboxes visible or that the user is able to scroll down?

I know those are many questions:( i would be very glad to get answers!

Best regards, John

Answer 1

[Jan]

Question 1: put the static text into the panel

txtbox = uicontrol('parent', panel, ...

instead of txtbox = uicontrol(fig, ...

Question 2: dynamic tag

box(i) = uicontrol('parent', panel,'style','checkbox', ...
                   'tag', sprintf('checkbox%d', i), ...

Note: Be careful with tags. It might be easier to store a list of the handles in a variable and share it with the callbacks. See setappdata and guidata.

Question 3: Adjust the figure size.

The figure size can be easiliy adjusted by adjustig the figure size. Compute the required height of the figure and simply set it initally or finally:

set(fig, 'Visible', 'on', 'Position', [100, 100, computedHeight, Width]);

[John]

Hi Jan,

thank you very much for your answers:) it works fine!!! the only problem left for me , is to compute the necessary size of the figure. I dont know how to do that and didnt find any hint in the internet so far.

Do you know how to do that so that step number 3 can be solved?

Best regards, John

[Jan]

Hi. You want stages elements and each use the position [20 360-i*25 40 20]. Of course this get negative at some point. So do not start at 360, but from e.g.: Height = stages * 25 + 40 Consider the wanted white space on top an bottom also. And then set the the figure size accordingly:

set(fig, 'Position', [100, 100, Height, Width])

If the methods gets clear to you, you will see, that it is trivial. If you still think about this problem, stop working and drink a cup of coffee.

[John]

Many thx Jan!! works fine!

[Furqan Abbasi]

Hi, Regarding this question, i want to ask if all the input on each edit can be saved in one variable on the workspace e.g with a save push button, callback? I am able to save the string of one edit, but dont know how to save the data from all the editbox in one array. That will be e.g 10*1, Variable name 'x'.

Thanks, Furqan

[Walter Roberson]

The content of edit boxes which have Max set to 1 are always character vectors. If Max is more than 1 then they might be char arrays or might be cell arrays of char vectors. Not numeric in an case.

To store them all in a single variable you can get() the String property of a vector of handles. The result will be a cell array of the individual contents.

[Ahmed Khalil]

Hi, can someone please explain how do I add the tags to each of the buttons. If I add:

                   'tag', sprintf('checkbox%d', i), ...

like Jan said then how do I recall back the value of a particular box if I wanted to ?

[Walter Roberson]

k = 3;   %for example
box_k = findobj(0, 'tag', sprintf('checkbox%d', k) )

It would be much easier to not do this: that instead of finding them by tag, to save a vector of handles somewhere at creation time, and then at execution time, retrieve the vector and index it. In terms of Jan's code:

box(i) = uicontrol('parent', panel,'style','checkbox', ...

then

setappdata(fig, 'box', box)

and then later

box = getappdata(fig, 'box');

k = 3;
box_k = box(k);

[Ahmed Khalil]

I'm so sorry to be a bother. I added setappdata(panel, 'box', box) but it gives this error:

Error using box Too many output arguments.

Error in multidesign2>edit1_Callback (line 101) design = uicontrol('parent',panel,'Style','edit',...

[Walter Roberson]

You would only get that error if your code assigning to box(i) had not executed in that workspace.