15.3.3.16 Uicontrol Properties

Properties of uicontrol objects (see uicontrol):

Categories:

Appearance | Callback Execution | Control Options | Creation/Deletion | Display | Mouse Interaction | Object Identification | Object Position | Parent/Children | Text Appearance

Appearance

backgroundcolor: colorspec, def. [0.9400 0.9400 0.9400]

The color value of the background of this control object.

cdata: array, def. [](0x0)

Image data used to represent the control object, stored as a M x N x 3 RGB array.

extent (read-only): four-element vector

Size of the text string associated to the uicontrol returned in the form [0 0 width height] (the two first elements are always zero).

For multi-line strings the returned width and height indicate the size of the rectangle enclosing all lines.

foregroundcolor: colorspec, def. [0 0 0]

The color value of the text for this control object. See colorspec.

style: "checkbox" | "edit" | "frame" | "listbox" | "popupmenu" | {"pushbutton"} | "radiobutton" | "slider" | "text" | "togglebutton"

The type of control object created. For a complete description of available control styles, see the "uicontrol" function

Callback Execution

busyaction: "cancel" | {"queue"}

Define how Octave handles the execution of this object’s callback properties when it is unable to interrupt another object’s executing callback. This is only relevant when the currently executing callback object has its interruptible property set to "off". The busyaction property of the interrupting callback object indicates whether the interrupting callback is queued ("queue" (default)) or discarded ("cancel"). See Callbacks section.

callback: string, def. [](0x0)

A string consisting of a valid Octave expression that will be executed whenever this control is activated.

interruptible: "off" | {"on"}

Specify whether this object’s callback functions may be interrupted by other callbacks. By default interruptible is "on" and callbacks that make use of drawnow, figure, waitfor, getframe or pause functions are eventually interrupted. See Callbacks section.

keypressfcn: string | function handle, def. [](0x0)

Function that is executed when a key is pressed and the control object has focus.

For information on how to write graphics listener functions see Callbacks section.

Control Options

enable: "inactive" | "off" | {"on"}

Sets whether this control object is active or is grayed out.

listboxtop: scalar, def. 1

The index of the string option that will appear at the top of "listbox" controls

max: scalar, def. 1

The maximum control value, whose effect on the control is dependent on the control type. For "checkbox", "togglebutton", and "radiobutton" controls, the "max" value is assigned to the "value" property when the control object is selected. For "slider" controls, "max" defines the maximum value of the slider. For "edit" and "listbox" controls, if Max - Min > 1, then the control will permit multiple line entries or list item selections, respectively.

min: scalar, def. 0

The minimum control value, whose effect on the control is dependent on the control type. For "checkbox", "togglebutton", and "radiobutton" controls, the "min" value is assigned to the "value" property when the control object is not selected. For "slider" controls, "min" defines the minimum value of the slider. For "edit" and "listbox" controls, if Max - Min > 1, then the control will permit multiple line entries or list item selections, respectively.

sliderstep: two-element vector, def. [0.010000 0.100000]

The fractional step size, measured relative to the Min - Max span of the slider, that the slider moves when the user clicks on the object. "sliderstep" is specified as a two-element vector consisting of [minor major], where "minor" is the step size for clicking on the slider arrows, and "major" is the step size for clicking within the slider bar.

value: scalar, def. 0

A numerical value associated with the current state of the control object, with the meaning of the value dependent on the "style" of the control object.

Creation/Deletion

beingdeleted: {"off"} | "on"

Property indicating that a function has initiated deletion of the object. beingdeleted is set to true until the object no longer exists.

createfcn: string | function handle, def. [](0x0)

Callback function executed immediately after uicontrol has been created. Function is set by using default property on root object, e.g., set (groot, "defaultuicontrolcreatefcn", 'disp ("uicontrol created!")').

For information on how to write graphics listener functions see Callbacks section.

deletefcn: string | function handle, def. [](0x0)

Callback function executed immediately before uicontrol is deleted.

For information on how to write graphics listener functions see Callbacks section.

Display

clipping: "off" | {"on"}

If clipping is "on", the uicontrol is clipped in its parent axes limits.

visible: "off" | {"on"}

If visible is "off", the uicontrol is not rendered on screen.

Mouse Interaction

buttondownfcn: string | function handle, def. [](0x0)

For information on how to write graphics listener functions see Callbacks section.

contextmenu: graphics handle, def. [](0x0)

Graphics handle of the uicontextmenu object that is currently associated to this uicontrol object.

hittest: "off" | {"on"}

Specify whether uicontrol processes mouse events or passes them to ancestors of the object. When enabled, the object may respond to mouse clicks by evaluating the "buttondownfcn", showing the uicontextmenu, and eventually becoming the root "currentobject". This property is only relevant when the object can accept mouse clicks which is determined by the "pickableparts" property. See pickableparts property.

pickableparts: "all" | "none" | {"visible"}

Specify whether uicontrol will accept mouse clicks. By default, pickableparts is "visible" and only visible parts of the uicontrol or its children may react to mouse clicks. When pickableparts is "all" both visible and invisible parts (or children) may react to mouse clicks. When pickableparts is "none" mouse clicks on the object are ignored and transmitted to any objects underneath this one. When an object is configured to accept mouse clicks the "hittest" property will determine how they are processed. See hittest property.

selected: {"off"} | "on"

Property indicates whether this uicontrol is selected.

selectionhighlight: "off" | {"on"}

If selectionhighlight is "on", then the uicontrol’s selection state is visually highlighted.

tooltipstring: string, def. ""

A text string that appears in a tooltip when the mouse pointer hovers over the control object.

Object Identification

tag: string, def. ""

A user-defined string to label the graphics object.

type (read-only): string

Class name of the graphics object. type is always "uicontrol".

userdata: Any Octave data, def. [](0x0)

User-defined data to associate with the graphics object.

Object Position

position: four-element vector, def. [0 0 80 30]

Size of the control object represented as the four-element vector [left, bottom, width, height].

units: "centimeters" | "characters" | "inches" | "normalized" | {"pixels"} | "points"

Unit of measurement used to interpret the "position" property.

Parent/Children

children (read-only): vector of graphics handles, def. [](0x1)

Graphics handles of the uicontrol’s children.

handlevisibility: "callback" | "off" | {"on"}

If handlevisibility is "off", the uicontrol’s handle is not visible in its parent’s "children" property.

parent: graphics handle

Handle of the parent graphics object.

Text Appearance

fontangle: "italic" | {"normal"}

Control whether the font is italic or normal.

fontname: string, def. "*"

Name of font used for text rendering. When setting this property, the text rendering engine will search for a matching font in your system. If none is found then text is rendered using a default sans serif font (same as the default "*" value).

Programming Note: On systems that don’t use FontConfig natively (all but Linux), the font cache is built when Octave is installed. You will need to run system ("fc-cache -fv") manually after installing new fonts.

fontsize: scalar, def. 10

Size of the font used for text rendering. See fontunits property.

fontunits: "centimeters" | "inches" | "normalized" | "pixels" | {"points"}

Units used to interpret the "fontsize" property.

fontweight: "bold" | {"normal"}

Control the variant of the base font used for text rendering.

horizontalalignment: {"center"} | "left" | "right"

Specifies the horizontal justification of the text within the uicontrol object.

string: string, def. ""

The text appearing with the control object.

verticalalignment: "bottom" | {"middle"} | "top"

Specifies the vertical position of the text in the uicontrol object.