generate n numbers of static text boxes in a gui

how do i generate n numbers of static text boxes automatically? i.e. i dont have to go through guide in manually selecting each textbox.. coz here n is very large, in orders of 500s.. or is there any other text box type option available which can be generate automatically through a loop?

[Tom]

500 text boxes will not be easy to work with... use a table?

[Shree Nath]

yeah.. but text boxes will do better in what i've been doing :)

[Sean de Wolski]

@Shree: why? What does a uitable not offer that an array of text boxes would.

[Shree Nath]

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=231890073597529&set=a.189231197863417.41143.100003296140487

you see thats what i actually am doin.. uitable wud require more formatting..

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

TextItems = {'Hello', 'klaatu', 'MATLAB', 'cephaloid'};
for K = 1 : length(TextItems)
  texthandles(K) = uicontrol('Style', 'text', 'String', TextItems{K});
end

You would probably want to enhance this to control the position of the items.

[Shree Nath]

this will work great.. thanks :)

[Shree Nath]

one more doubt.. i want to change the position of the texthandles in a gui via a slider.. problem is, i dont know how to access and modify the position of the texthandles in the slider callback function?

[Shree Nath]

when i tried to access the

y=(texthandles(i),'Position');

it gave the following error

 Undefined function or method 'texthandles' for input arguments
of type 'double'.
Error in ==> ch5>slider1_Callback at 85
    disp(texthandles(i),'Position');

[Walter Roberson]

Looks like you are using GUIDE, so after you create texthandles, use

handles.texthandles = texthandles;
guidata(hObject, handles);

Then inside the callback, reference handles.texthandles

[Shree Nath]

perfect..!! :)

[elvis okacha]

Walter in trying to enhance the positioning of the output in the solution you gave but I'm Struggling to insert handles.texthandles.getting errors.also tried to set() position but stuck with my guide app.kindly help

[elvis okacha]

Matias R2015a

[Walter Roberson]

elvis okacha:

Are you using GUIDE for your GUI?

What error are you encountering?

Answer 2

[elvis okacha]

It worked.i had placed guidata(hObject,handles) outside the for loop

Answer 3

[elvis okacha]

I am able to display values at any point on the image.however,I want to display the values at the exact co-ordinates obtained by getpts().if I set the position,the points do not display at the selected points but are far away or sometimes nowhere close to the initial coordinate.kindly help

[Walter Roberson]

Are you passing an axes handle to getpts?

Note that x, y coordinates correspond to columns and rows, not to rows and columns.

[elvis okacha]

No. getpts() is under the same button so when setting where to display I set the position to [x y 15 15].when the printout appears,it doesn't trace where I selected

[elvis okacha]

When I set [0 0 15 15] the value appears at bottom left corner yet the image doesn't have any edge at the origin

[Walter Roberson]

The default for getpts() is figure coordinates, not axes coordinates.

[elvis okacha]

True.so when I set position with figure cotdinates [x y] I don't get the value to display at the point selected by getpts().that's my dilemma.any help would be appreciated

[Walter Roberson]

How do you set the position with figure coordinates ? What calls are you using?

[elvis okacha]

After displaying image

[x y]=getpts
for k=1:length(TextItems)
text handles(k)=uncontrolled('Style','text','String',TextItems{k});
handles.texthandles=text handles(k);
set(handles.texthandles,'Units','pixels','Position',[y x 15 15];
guidance(hObject,handles)
end

[elvis okacha]

*not uncontrolled but *uicontrol.sorry for typo

[Walter Roberson]

It turns out that getpts returns data units. uicontrol() position is never data units.

Install https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/10656-data-space-to-figure-units-conversion

ax = gca;            %or better yet, specific axes already created
[x y] = getpts(ax);
if isempty(x); return; end    %no points chosen
[xf, yf] = ds2nfu(ax, x, y);

for k = 1 : length(TextItems)
    texthandles(k) = uicontrol('Style', 'text', 'String', TextItems{K}, 'Units', 'normal');
end
set(texthandles, 'Position', [xf(1) yf(1) 15 15]);
handles.texthandles = texthandles;
guidata(hObject, handles);

Note that this would set all of the uicontrols to the same location, namely the location of the first point.

If you wanted to set one uicontrol style text for each point, then you need to specify what you want to have happen if there is a different number of points returned than there are text items.

Could you explain further why you want to create uicontrol style text for these, rather than creating text() objects or datatips ? uicontrol are not part of the axes, and so the uicontrol would stay exactly where they were if you were to zoom or pan or resize the axes without resizing the figure.

[elvis okacha]

I simply used the code with the Uicontrol that you replied as a response to a question in this thread.meanwhile let me install that bit you've said

[elvis okacha]

Which folder do I place the codes.do I put in bin?

[Walter Roberson]

The question I was answering was for creating static text boxes automatically. That is something you might do if you are creating a user interface. It is not something you would do to label coordinates in a plot. uicontrol() are for user interface purposes; you would use text() to label nodes.

Use the Add-On Explorer to install that contribution and the explorer will automatically download and install it for you. Get Add-Ons, search for ds2nfu, click on the one marked as being by Michelle Hirsch, click to Add from GitHub, Ok downloading outside source.

Answer 4

[elvis okacha]

Yes I'm using it to create a user interface.the add-on explorer appears not to work with R2015a

[Walter Roberson]

In that case click on the Download from GitHub button in the link I posted, and download the .zip file. Unzip it into any convenient unused directory that is not underneath where MATLAB itself is installed. Once it is unzipped, use pathtool to add the directory you installed into to your path.

Answer 5

[elvis okacha]

I've installed though an error occurs that 'not enough input arguments'

Answer 6

[elvis okacha]

Now running without error.but still value is out of position

Answer 7

[elvis okacha]

I'm glad for your assistance.atleast the axes has maintained a region (0,0) to (1,1).is there a way I can force the image to stick to same region that is (0,0) to (1,1)?kindly