What program should I use?

Dear everyone, could anyone tell me if either app designer or the GUIDE program will be able to achieve what I want in creating a simple app.

1. App should be able to receive inputs such as temperature for example

2. The app will check through various databases, for example from database 1,2 and 3 for matches/or if the temperature lies within a certain range

3. Output the results in a document/text indicating the input matches database 2 and 3 for example

4. Ideally the app also has a tab to choose between what sort of parameter it is comparing so that the correct database is chosen for it to do comparison

TLDR; what sort of app design program can i use to write a code and output results in a separate document apart from the matlab command window?

Answer 1

[Jan]

Any GUI can do what you are asking for: App Designer, GUIDE or a hand-made GUI using code. Fields to input data (1.) and to choose parameters (4.) are the purpose of a GUI. Then points 2. and 3. do not belong to the GUI at all, but they are implemented in the code.

So decide for the tool, which is most convenient for you.

I prefer to create GUIs programmatically, because this less affected by incompatibilities between Matlab versions.

[Darren Koh]

Thanks for the advice Simon. Do you know if point (2) can be achieved by creating an excel sheet and linking it to matlab? Will I be able to package it into a GUI subsequently?

[Walter Roberson]

Remember that ActiveX is only available on MS Windows, not Mac or Linux, and that using ActiveX to communicate with Excel requires that Excel is installed -- which might not be the case if you are compiling.

[Jan]

@Darren: It depends on what "check through various databases" exactly means. Excel files are not considered to be "databases" in a strict sense. If you simply want to read an Excel file, use xlsread or readtable.

Answer 2

[Sean de Wolski]

Use app designer. It can support everything you want and is where all of MathWorks' user interface development is focused.