uicontrol

create a Graphic User Interface object

Calling Sequence

h = uicontrol(PropertyName,PropertyValue,...)
h = uicontrol(parent,PropertyName,PropertyValue,...)
h = uicontrol(uich)

Description

This routine creates an object in a figure.

If the handle of the figure is given (as the first parameter), the uicontrol is created in this figure. If no handle is given, the uicontrol is created in the current figure (which may be obtained with a call to gcf()). If there is no current figure, then one is created before the creation of the uicontrol.

Then when the control is created, the properties given as parameters are set with the corresponding values. It is equivalent to create the uicontrol, and then set its properties with the set() command. Nevertheless, it generally more efficient to set the properties in the call to uicontrol(). Scilab and all the graphic objects communicate through the property mechanism. Thus, to create adapted uicontrol, one has to know the use of the property fields.

h= uicontrol(PropertyName, PropertyValue,...) creates an uicontrol and assigns the specified properties and values to it. It assigns the default values to any properties you do not specify. The default uicontrol style is a “Pushbutton”. The default parent is the current figure. See the Properties section for information about these and other properties.

h= uicontrol(parent, PropertyName, PropertyValue,...) creates a uicontrol in the object specified by the handle, parent. If you also specify a different value for the Parent property, the value of the Parent property takes precedence. parent is the handle of a figure.

h= uicontrol(uich) gives focus to the uicontrol specified by uich.

Properties

:BackgroundColor [1,3] real vector or string Background color of the
uicontrol. A color is specified as Red, Green and Blue values. Those values are real in [0,1]. The color can be given as a real vector, ie [R,G,B] or a string where each value is separated by a “|”, ie “R|G|B”.
: :Callback String Instruction evaluated by the Scilab interpreter
when an uicontrol is activated. (for example when you click on a button).

: :Callback_Type Integer The type of callback transmitted to the uicontrol.

  • -1 none (callback desactivated)
  • 0 a Scilab instruction
  • 1 a C or a Fortran function
  • 2 a Scilab function
: :Enable {on} | off Enable or disable the uicontrol. If this property
is set to “on” (default), the uicontrol is operational, but if this property is set to “off”, the uicontrol will not respond to the mouse actions and will be grayed out.
: :FontAngle {normal} | italic | oblique For a control containing some
text, this property sets the slant of the font.
: :FontSize Scalar For a control containing some text, this property
sets the size of the font in FontUnits.
: :FontUnits {points} | pixels | normalized For a control containing
some text, this property sets the units with which the FontSize is specified.
: :FontWeight light | {normal} | demi | bold For a control containing
some text, this property sets the weight of the used font.
: :FontName String Used to choose the name of the font selected to
display the text of the control.
: :ForegroundColor [1,3] real vector or string Foreground color of the
uicontrol. A color is specified as Red, Green and Blue values. Those values are real in [0,1]. The color can be given as a real vector, ie [R,G,B] or a string where each value is separated by a “|”, ie “R|G|B”.
: :HorizontalAlignment left | {center} | right Set text horizontal
alignment in the uicontrol. This property has only effect with Text, Edit and Check Boxes.
: :ListboxTop Scalar For a ListBox, this property tells which item of
the list appears on the first line of the visible area of the list.

: :Max Scalar Specifies the largest value the “Value” property can be set to. It has however different meaning on each uicontrol:

  • CheckBoxes: Max is the value the “Value” property take when control is checked.
  • Sliders: Maximum value of the slider.
  • ListBoxes: if (Max-Min)>1 the list allows multiple selection, Otherwise not.

: :Min Scalar Specifies the lowest value the “Value” property can be set to. It has however different meaning on each uicontrol:

  • CheckBoxes: Min is the value the “Value” property take when control is unchecked.
  • Sliders: Minimum value of the slider.
  • ListBoxes: if (Max-Min)>1 the list allows multiple selection, Otherwise not.
: :Parent Handle Handle of the uicontrol parent. Changing this
property allows to move a control from a figure to another.

: :Path This property is no more supported. : :Position [1,4] real vector or string. This property is used to set

or get the geometrical configuration of a control. It is a vector [x y w h] where the letters stand for the x location of the left bottom corner, the y location of the left bottom corner, the width and the height of the uicontrol or a character string where each value is separated by a “|”, ie “x|y|w|h”. The units are determined by the “Units” property. The width and height values determine the orientation of sliders. If width is greater than height, then the slider is oriented horizontally, otherwise the slider is oriented vertically.

: :Relief flat | groove | raised | ridge | solid | sunken Appearance of the border of the uicontrol:

  • PushButtons: the default value for “Relief” property is “raised”.
  • Edits: the default value for “Relief” property is “sunken”.
  • Other styles: the default value for “Relief” property is “flat”.
: :SliderStep [1,2] real vector [small big], the small step represents
the movement achieved when clicking on the slider trough or tapping on the keyboard arrows (when the slider has focus); the big step is the amount moved when using Ctrl-keyboard-arrows. If the big step is omitted, it is defaulted to 1/10 of the scale.
: :String String. This property represents the text appearing in a
uicontrol (Except for Frame and Slider styles). For tables, the value is a string matrix. For ListBoxes and PopupMenus, the value can be a vector of string or a string where the items are separated by a “|”. For Text uicontrols, this string can contain HTML code to format the text. For Pushbutton or Text uicontrols, if the text is enclosed between two $ (dollar sign), then it will be considered as a LaTeX expression, and if it is enclosed between < and >, it will be considered as a MathML one. For Image, the value specifies the path of the image file. For Table, the value specifies the whole table data: [IGNORED COL1-HEADER...COLN-HEADER;ROW1-HEADER, ROW1COL1-DATA, ROW1COLN-DATA;...;ROWM-HEADER, ROWMCOL1-DATA, ROWMCOLN-DATA].
: :TooltipString String or String vector This property represents the
text of the uicontrol tooltip appearing when the mouse is over the uicontrol.

: :Style {pushbutton} | radiobutton | checkbox | edit | text | slider | frame | listbox | popupmenu | image | table Style of the uicontrol. This property has to be set at creation time and can not be changed once the uicontrol is created. Here is a short description of each one:

  • Pushbutton: a rectangular button generally used to run a callback.
  • Radiobutton: a button with to states. RadioButtons are intended to be mutually exclusive (Your code must implement mutually exclusive behavior).
  • Checkbox: a button with to states (Used for multiple independent choices).
  • Edit: an editable string zone.
  • Text: a text control (generally static).
  • Slider: a scale control, that is a scrollbar use to set values between in range with the mouse.
  • Frame: a control representing a zone used to group related controls.
  • Listbox: a control representing a list of items that can be scrolled. The items can be selected with the mouse.
  • Popupmenu: a button which make a menu appear when clicked.
  • Image: a sub-window where the image specified is displayed.
  • Table: an editable table.
: :Tag String This property is generally used to identify the control.
It allows to give it a “name”. Mainly used in conjunction with findobj().
: :Units {points} | pixels | normalized Set the units used to specify
the “Position” property.
: :Userdata Scilab data This can be used to associate some Scilab
objects (string,string matrix, matrix mxn) to an uicontrol.

: :Value Scalar or vector Value of the uicontrol. The exact meaning depends on the style of the uicontrol:

  • CheckBoxes, Radio buttons: value is set to Max (see above) when on and Min when off.
  • ListBoxes, PopupMenus: value is a vector of indexes corresponding to the indexes of the selected entries in the list. 1 is the first item of the list.
  • Sliders: value indicated by the slider bar.
  • Images: value is used to set some image properties [X-Scale Y-Scale X-Shear Y-Shear RotationAngle]
: :Verticalalignment top | {middle} | bottom Set text vertical
alignment in the uicontrol. This property has only effect with Text and CheckBoxes styles.
: :Visible {on} | off Set the visibility of the uicontrol. If this
property is set to “on” (default), the uicontrol is visible, but if this property is set to “off”, the uicontrol will not appear in its parent figure.

:

Examples

f=`figure`_();
// create a figure
h=uicontrol(f,'style','listbox', ...
 'position', [10 10 150 160]);
// create a listbox
`set`_(h, 'string', "item 1|item 2|item3");
// fill the list
`set`_(h, 'value', [1 3]);
// select item 1 and 3 in the list
`close`_(f);
// close the figure

uicontrol function can be overloaded

// create a mlist
mymlist = `mlist`_(['objid','A','B'],[],[]);

// overload set / get for objid
function result=%objid_uicontrol(varargin)
  // res = uicontrol(mymlist,'A');
  obj_tmp   = varargin(1);
  field_tmp = varargin(2);
  `mprintf`_('uicontrol on an object of type %s, field = %s\n', `typeof`_(obj_tmp), field_tmp);
  result = %t;
endfunction

res = uicontrol(mymlist,'property');

Pushbuttons or Text can have LaTeX or MathML label

// LaTeX
f=`figure`_();
h=uicontrol(f,"style","pushbutton","string","$x^2$");
// MathML
hh=uicontrol(f,"style","pushbutton","string","<msup><mi>x</mi><mn>2</mn></msup>");
hh.Position = h.Position + [50, 0, 0, 0];
// Text
h=uicontrol(f,"Style","text","string","$\Gamma(s)=\int_0^\infty t^{s-1}\mathrm{e}^{-t}\,\mathrm{d}t$");
// If it is too little
h.fontsize=20

See Also

  • figure create a figure
  • set set a property value of a graphic entity object or of a User Interface object.
  • get Retrieve a property value from a graphics entity or an User Interface object.
  • uimenu Create a menu or a submenu in a figure
  • LaTeX and MathML Display mathematical equations in Scilab graphics through the LaTeX or MathML languages.

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