Special characters in datacursormode

I'm trying to use datacursormode to display a data tip with \beta_1 and \beta_2 instead of x and y.

Setting

output_text = { ['\beta_1 = ' num2str(pos(1)) ], ['\beta_2 = ' num2str(pos(2)) ]}

yields a data tip with "\beta_1 = [the x coord of the cursor]" on one line and \beta_2 on the second, whereas this precise string works as desired in a title or legend or other place.

Is there some way to get the data tip to act like other graph text? Could I even get the LaTeX interpreter to work with it?

Thanks!

[Walter Roberson]

The screen update done by /Applications/MATLAB_R2017b.app/toolbox/matlab/scribe/+matlab/+graphics/+shape/+internal/@PointDataTip/private/createCustomStringStrategy.p using the String property of PointDataTip objects; everything about how the strings are put onto the screen appears to be in .p files.

Answer 1

[Mukul Rao]

Hi, I work for the MathWorks Technical Support team. There is no documented way to change the interpreter for the "datacursor"; For now, only standard text is supported on figure data tips. There is an existing enhancement request in place.

That being said, there are a couple undocumented workarounds you can potentially consider

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1668071/how-do-i-use-tex-latex-formatting-for-custom-data-tips-in-matlab

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/30011448/how-to-properly-display-tex-strings-in-axes-datatips-matlab-hg2

Please keep in mind that since these workarounds use undocumented methods, they are not guaranteed to work in future releases of MATLAB.

[Amit Halevi]

Thank you. The second one worked perfectly!

You may, however, wish to update the documentation for the UpdateFcn functionality; the help page for datacursormode says that the first argument is unused, whereas it seems in practice to be the DataCursor object.

Future-proofing isn't important, as it's academic code. That's the next batch of grad students' problem!