Loop through grid layout takes FOREVER. How can I optimize the code?

I am trying to create an app with many text areas (80x12) in a gridlayout. I want to fill each grid with a individual text taken from a cell array. However, in the code example below I am just using {['test1',newline,'test2']} for all of them. But in the real example each text.value is different. I am looping over each textarea in the gridlayout and it is working as intended. However, it takes FOREVER (75.101076 seconds). Is there a way to speed up the process?

tic        
fig = uifigure('Position',[100 100 440 320]);
%fig.WindowState = 'maximized';

g = uigridlayout(fig,[80 12],'Scrollable','on');
g.ColumnSpacing = 0;
g.RowSpacing = 0;
g.ColumnWidth = {150,50,20,50,150,50,50,50,50,50,150,'fit'};
g.RowHeight = {50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,...
    50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,...
    50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,...
    50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,...
    50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,...
    50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,...
    50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,...
    50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50,50};

for j = 1:12   
    for i = 1:80
        txa = uitextarea(g,'Value', {['test1',newline,'test2']});
        txa.Layout.Row = i;
        txa.Layout.Column = j;
        if i == 3
        txa.BackgroundColor = 'yellow';
        end
        if i == 8 && j == 5
        txa.BackgroundColor = 'green';
        end          
    end
end

toc

Elapsed time is 75.101076 seconds.

Below is an example of the output

Answer 1

[Deepak]

Hi @Johnny Birch,

To optimize the performance of the MATLAB code, creating many text areas in a grid layout, we can implement several optimizations aimed to reduce the computational overhead.

First, we can pre-allocate an array to store the handles of the text areas, which can help improve performance by minimizing dynamic memory allocation during the loop iterations. Next, we can separate the text areas creation logic from properties customization logic, to reduce the complexity during the initial creation phase. Finally, we can use “repmat” function for setting uniform row heights to slightly enhance the performance by reducing complexity of layout assignments.

Here is the updated MATLAB code with the required changes:

tic 
fig = uifigure('Position', [100 100 440 320]); 
g = uigridlayout(fig, [80 12], 'Scrollable', 'on'); 
g.ColumnSpacing = 0; 
g.RowSpacing = 0; 
g.ColumnWidth = {150, 50, 20, 50, 150, 50, 50, 50, 50, 50, 150, 'fit'}; 
g.RowHeight = repmat({50}, 1, 80);  % Use repmat for cleaner code 

% Preallocate text areas 
textAreas = gobjects(80, 12); 

% Create text areas 
for j = 1:12 
    for i = 1:80 
        textAreas(i, j) = uitextarea(g, 'Value', {['test1', newline, 'test2']}); 
        textAreas(i, j).Layout.Row = i; 
        textAreas(i, j).Layout.Column = j; 
    end 
end 

% Set background colors in a separate loop 
for j = 1:12 
    for i = 1:80 
        if i == 3 
            textAreas(i, j).BackgroundColor = 'yellow'; 
        end 
        if i == 8 && j == 5 
            textAreas(i, j).BackgroundColor = 'green'; 
        end 
    end 
end 
toc 

Elapsed time is 3.847896 seconds. 

Please find attached the documentation of functions used for reference:

repmat - www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/repmat.html

Array indexing - www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/math/array-indexing.html

I hope this helps in resolving the issue.