Using an axes handle as an input for a function

Hi everyone,

I'm working on a MATLAB app which does some plotting, and to simplify the code, I was trrying to generalise my plotting function so that I can tell it whether to plot everything on axes A or on axes B.

Essentially I have a preview window where you can add options to the plot which is then shown in "app.smallpax", but then I switch to a saving window where I want the exact same plot, with all the options you selected in the preview, but just larger and with a save button.

Therefore, I want to plot the same thing in 2 different places, but maintain also options for grids, axes, colorbars etc which don't come packaged in the graphics object porperties. I have looked into copyobj but it does not transfer colorbars and grid settings, which leads to a lot of duplicate code and logic to reapply them there again, due to how the option buttons and tickboxes are coded.

This below is the function I'm trying to generalise. I added a "target" handle which would point to either a small polar axes "app.smallpax" (for the preview window) and a big one, "app.bigpax" (for the saving window).

function PlotPolarCoordinates(app, target)
    delete(target) % remove any previous graph

    if strcmp(target,'app.smallpax') ==1 % check what the target is and assign it to the corresponding UI panel 
        app.smallpax = polaraxes(app.SmallFingerprintPlotPanel);
    elseif strcmp(target,'app.bigpax') ==1 % check what the target is and assign it to the corresponding UI panel 
        app.bigpax = polaraxes(app.BigFingerprintPlotPanel);
    end
    % plot the polar scatter graph on the target axes
    app.fingerprint_plot = polarscatter(target,app.theta - app.angle*pi/180,app.rho,1,app.data_processed(:,app.AxisPlottingDropDown.Value),'.');
    
    % set the target axes and any grid on top of the plot
    set(target,'Layer','top','LineWidth',1,'FontWeight','bold','GridAlpha',1,'MinorGridAlpha',1,'RColor',[0.41176  0.41176  0.41176],'ThetaColor',[0.41176  0.41176  0.41176])

    colormap(target,app.ColorMapDropDown.Value);
    clim(target,[app.cmin,app.cmax]);
end

I assumed I could just place it within the set , clim or colomp commands just as a variable given that I am passing it as a string (i.e.

app.PlotPolarCoordinates('app.smallpax')
%or
app.app.PlotPolarCoordinates('app.bigpax')

This is essentially a consequence of a lot of smaller issues and I have a feeling that I'm wrapping myself up in a spaghetti code.

Any help on the best way of doing this would be greatly welcome.

Thanks!

[dpb]

In

delete(target) % remove any previous grap
...
app.fingerprint_plot = polarscatter(target,app.theta - app.angle*pi/180,app.rho,1,app.data_processed(:,app.AxisPlottingDropDown.Value),'.');

target must be the actual handle of the target axes -- not a string variable.

But, if you delete target, then it is no longer there to plot into later on; you've got to create a new one -- in which your subsequent reference is NULL and BOOM!

Would need more detail in the actual UI, but something at least closer would be something similar to

function PlotPolarCoordinates(app, target)
    delete(app.pax)             % remove any previous graph

    if strcmp(target,'small')
      app.pax=polaraxes(app.SmallFingerprintPlotPanel);
    else
      app.pax=polaraxes(app.BigFingerprintPlotPanel);
    end
    % plot the polar scatter graph on the target axes
    app.fingerprint_plot=polarscatter(app.pax,app.theta - app.angle*pi/180,app.rho,1,app.data_processed(:,app.AxisPlottingDropDown.Value),'.');
    
    % set the target axes and any grid on top of the plot
    set(app.pax,'Layer','top','LineWidth',1,'FontWeight','bold','GridAlpha',1,'MinorGridAlpha',1,'RColor',[0.41176  0.41176  0.41176],'ThetaColor',[0.41176  0.41176  0.41176])

    colormap(app.pax,app.ColorMapDropDown.Value);
    clim(app.pax,[app.cmin,app.cmax]);
end

The delete still may not work as intended; that will depend greatly on just how the UI is constructed, as is, it should be the last one that was created here; that may not be the one really want...what this does is create a small or large one depending on the input; it isn't clear that the last one that was plotted is always the one that should be delete first...

[Dennis Premoli]

This is essentially the UI:

Preview/options window

Saving window

This whole debacle really is due to copyObj not doing some very useful things, although I am aware that working in a more modular fashion is always best.

That said, I think I realised my mistake, in that I forgot how my own code worked. I was running under the assumption that app.smallpax was somehow a MATLAB object/handle, while it is in fact a varaible I created (stupid me).

I also find myself constantly butting against the inability to add extra handles to callback functions ceated by MATLAB. So I can have a AxisCheckBoxValueChanged(app, event) but I cannot call it as AxisCheckBoxValueChanged(app, event, target), to use it as a helper function in itself.

Therefore, I find myself constantly creating helper functions that I then call in 1 line under each callback, as seen here below. I wish, for example, that I could call AngleEditFieldValueChanged and also pass it a target axes, but it appears I can only do that with a global varibale or hard coding it in.

% Callback function
function AngleEditFieldValueChanged(app, event)
    app.angle = abs(app.AngleEditField.Value);
    app.Knob.Value = app.angle;
    app.PlotPolarCoordinates('app.smallpax')
end

% Value changed function: AngleSpinnerEditField
function AngleSpinnerEditFieldValueChanged(app, event)
    app.angle = abs(app.AngleSpinnerEditField.Value);
    app.Knob.Value = app.angle;
    app.PlotPolarCoordinates('app.smallpax')
end

% Value changing function: Knob
function KnobValueChanging(app, event)
end
    app.angle  = event.Value;
    app.AngleSpinnerEditField.Value = app.angle;
    
    app.PlotPolarCoordinates('app.smallpax')

In my defense, this code has been written by me and another person so the whole pax debacle was not my creation ahah but I am trying to coincide my limited knowldge of MATLAB with what I know are generally good coding practices.