How to clear variable from GUI?

I am plotting from a structure called handles.data. I have a push button to clear all graphs and this structure to plot other things, but the clear command doesn't seem to be working. When I try to replot using the same code as before, I get an error saying "Subscripted assignment between dissimilar structures." When I check handles.data, I have a struct with no fields. How would I just remove the variable completely?

try
    for i=1:length(handles.graphs)
        close(i)
    end
    clear handles.name
    clear handles.data
catch ME
    clear handles.name
    clear handles.data
    handles.j=1;
end
guidata(hObject, handles);

Answer 1

[Adam]

handles.data = [];

will reset the field to empty (which is what I usually do because I use an isempty(...) test when using the data)

handles = rmfield( handles, 'data' );

would remove the field.

clear is used for clearing variables, you can't clear a field of a structure with it.

clear handles

would be valid syntax, but do not do this in a GUI as it will remove the whole structure and make your GUI unusable.

[Ibro Tutic]

So I attempt to clear the structure by doing

handles.data=[];

When I try to plot again, I get the error "Conversion from double to struct not possible". The structure handles.data is contains a nested structure (handles.data.Plot.data). Does this matter?

[Adam]

Well, after

handles.data = [];

it doesn't contain anything, which was the point, as far as I could tell from your question.

You have posted any plotting code so I have no idea what that does, but if you are trying to plot what is in handles.data then I would assume you have run some code which populates it again after clearing it.