How can a GUI pop up menu be made to show the previous selected option?

I want to rephrase my earlier question as follows:

How can a GUI pop up menu be made to show the last selected option?

Answer 1

[Image Analyst]

This would probably work, though I haven't tested it.

allItems = get(handles.popup, 'string');
numberOfItems = length(allItems);
set(handles.popup, 'value', numberOfItems);

[Shyam]

this is just making the value field to total num of selections...

[Image Analyst]

Then try the 'Selected' property or something like that

set(handles.popup, 'Selected', numberOfItems);

[Shyam]

 i tried this...

set(handles.popupmenu4,'Value',2)
where 2nd option was my earlier choice

not working

[Image Analyst]

If you set Selected equal to the number of items in the list, then the selection will be the last one on the list - the bottom item on the list. Isn't that what you mean by "last"?

[Shyam]

sorry ...by last ... i meant previous option that i selected

[Image Analyst]

Glad that my suggestion to read the FAQ helped. But I guess I'm missing something. Why would the selected item change? If the user selects something, it will stay on that selection unless you, in code, or the user changes it to something else, like I've already said. When does it change so that it's not on the last selected item?

[Shyam]

say u select the second choice in gui ...this will set some parameters and initiate some activities...now u close the gui and run the simulation...second time the gui is opened..it will be displaying the first choice ...now user who wants to select the first choice, leaves the gui untouched, closes it and wen he runs the simulation...everything will correspond to the second choice...becoz unless he manually selects the first choice , it wont initiate the first choice's activities...

hope its clear now...any questions?

[Image Analyst]

Yes. I didn't know that you were completely shutting down your application. What you do in that case is to have two functions. One called SaveUserSettings(), which saves the current state of all the controls to a mat file. I use a structure called userSettings and have all the various states and settings as members of that. Then to save you query all the controls, store their settings in userSettings, and then save to a mat file:

function SaveUserSettings(handles)
  userSettings = handles.userSettings;
  userSettings.popupSelection = get(handles.popup, 'Selection');
  % And so on for the other controls whose values you want to save.
  save(matFullFileName, 'userSettings');

You can call this function when you exit, or whenever you change a control's state - whenever you prefer.

Then you need another function called LoadUserSettings() where you load that mat file and set the values of the controls.

function LoadUserSettings(handles)
  matFullFileName = fullfile(pwd, 'UserSettings.mat');
  if exist(matFullFileName, 'file)
    storedStructure = load(matFullFileName);
    handles.userSettings = storedStructure.UserSettings;
    userSettings = handles.userSettings; % Create a shorter-named version.
    % Assign states
    set(handles.popup1, 'Selection', userSettings.popupSelection);
    % and so on
  end

Does that make sense?

[Shyam]

elegant way...

[Image Analyst]

If that will acceptable, then please mark the answer as "Accepted" to close this out. Thanks.

Answer 2

[Yao Li]

allItems = get(handles.popupmenu1, 'string')

set(handles.popupmenu1,'String',allItems);

[Shyam]

but how will it show my earlier selection...i need to rearrange the string somehow to make my earlier selection come to the first

correct me if i am wrong

[Yao Li]

Assign the string to workspace by using assignin()

[Shyam]

This is a part of a code...CODE needs to have the knowledge of past selection to work correctly...

[Yao Li]

Sel_val = get(handles.popupmenu1, 'value');
assignin('base','Sel_val',Sel_val)
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

last_pop=evalin('base','Sel_val');
if~isempty(last_pop)
set(handles.popupmenu1,'value',last_pop);
else
end

Try to add above two paragraphs to the right location to meet your requirements

[Shyam]

could u pls xplain statements 2,3...wats base,sel_val...thanks

[Yao Li]

base specifies the base workspace

Sel_val is just a variable defined to store the current selection of popmenu

[Yao Li]

I've tried the above codes in a GUI script which works well. Maybe you need to replace the 2nd paragraph with blew:

temp='exist(''Sel_val'',''var'')';

if evalin('base',temp)
    last_pop=evalin('base','Sel_val')
    if~isempty(last_pop)
    set(handles.popupmenu1,'value',last_pop);
    else
    end
else
end

I add this paragraph in OpeningFcn and the other paragraph in the popmenu Callback. Anyway, select the best location for your specification.

[Shyam]

allItems = get(handles.popupmenu1, 'string') set(handles.popupmenu1,'String',allItems);

wat this does is getting the string frm pop up and then putting it back...right?....y do u want to put it back again?

[Shyam]

Kept the below in popupmenu callback

Sel_val = get(handles.popupmenu4, 'Value'); assignin('base','Sel_val',Sel_val)

kept the below in the opening func

temp='exist(''Sel_val'',''var'')'; if evalin('base',temp) last_pop=evalin('base','Sel_val') if~isempty(last_pop) set(handles.popupmenu4,'value',last_pop); else end else end

NO WAY!!

[Image Analyst]

You don't need to be doing anything with evalin(), and it's recommended that you not use the base workspace for sharing variables. If you want to have a variable seen from within more than one function, see the FAQ: http://matlab.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ#How_can_I_share_data_between_callback_functions_in_my_GUI.28s.29.3F

[Shyam]

setappdata and getappdata worked wonders....thanks guys

[Shyam]

but if u close matlab then the value u stored using setappdata is lost.... how to retain the value?

[Image Analyst]

Obviously. If you want to save the value to a disk file, you can do that with save() or fprintf(), or even xlswrite() or dlmwrite.