MATLAB Creating Graphical User Interfaces

11 Code a Programmatic UI

Initialize a Programmatic UI

Programs that present a UI might perform these tasks when you launch them:

• Define default values


• Set UI component property values


• Process input arguments


• Hide the figure window until all the components are created

When you develop a UI, consider grouping these tasks together in your code file. If an

initialization task involves several steps, consider creating a separate function for that

task.

Examples

Declare Variables for Input and Output Arguments

These are typical declarations for input and output arguments.

mInputArgs = varargin; % Command line arguments

mOutputArgs = {}; % Variable for storing output

See the varargin reference page for more information.

Define Custom Property/Value Pairs

This example defines the properties in a cell array, mPropertyDefs, and then initializes

the properties.

mPropertyDefs = {...

'iconwidth', @localValidateInput, 'mIconWidth';

'iconheight', @localValidateInput, 'mIconHeight';

'iconfile', @localValidateInput, 'mIconFile'};

mIconWidth = 16; % Use input property 'iconwidth' to initialize

mIconHeight = 16; % Use input property 'iconheight' to initialize

mIconFile = fullfile(matlabroot,'toolbox/matlab/icons/');

% Use input property 'iconfile' to initialize

Each row of the cell array defines one property. It specifies, in order, the name of the

property, the routine that is called to validate the input, and the name of the variable

that holds the property value.