Problem with nested or local functions in GUIDE

Hi everyone, This is the Second question of a series of questions to complete a project. The First question can be found here . The Third question is accessible here.

I am building the GUI, right now I am at the point you can see in the picture and I am testing "à côté" small bunches of code that i subsequently integrate in the main GUI.

I am having problems to integrate the function that says what happens when the box is checked in the GUI (function boxchecked). In the code below it works fine but when I integrate it in my GUI code it says that some function were not closed with an end statement. I was trying to create the function in a new .m script but I am really noob at this and I can't figure out how to pass the variables.

Attached you can find my GUI program. To test it just create a file text to open. Thanks to all of you helping all of us, you are the best!

function myui
    f = figure;
    A = {'a.txt'};
    B = {false};
    myData = [A B];
    t = uitable('Parent',f,...
                'Position', [25 25 700 200], ...
                'Data',myData,...
                'ColumnEditable', [false true], ...
                'CellEditCallback',@boxchecked;

      % create cell files of the size of the .TRA files
      files = cell(length(A),2);

      function boxchecked(hObject,eventdata)
              if eventdata.NewData == 1
                  % read the file only if it isn't already there
                  if isempty(files{eventdata.Indices(1),1})
                      fName = myData(eventdata.Indices(1),1);
                      fileName = fopen(fName{1,1}, 'r');
                      C = textscan(fileName, '%s %s %s', 'Delimiter', ';');
                      % create two subcells in files at the index eventdata containing the force and displacement
                      for i = 1:length(C{1,1})-17
                         files{eventdata.Indices(1),1}{i,1} = str2num(C{1,1}{i+17});
                         files{eventdata.Indices(1),2}{i,1} = str2num(C{1,2}{i+17});
                      end
                  end
                  f1 = cell2mat(files{1,1});
                  f2 = cell2mat(files{1,2});
                  plot(f1,f2)
              end
          end
  end

[Adam]

I would advise a different solution than nested functions with GUIDE. They are great for callbacks in programmatic UIs, but not for GUIDE. GUIDE auto-created functions do not terminate with an 'end' and adding one to every function is not a sensible solution. Any new component you add will introduce a function without an 'end' again and adding them all manually just doesn't make sense (I tried it once, but soon gave up!).

If your function myui takes no arguments then just leave it in its own file and call it from within your GUIDE file (even if it does take arguments obviously you can do the same and pass the arguments in).

When in its own file you will not have the problem of functions not being terminated by an 'end'

[Stephen23]

I would advise avoiding GUIDE altogether: writing your own code gives total control over everything, and allows using nested functions without any issues. I use nested functions for passing data between callbacks, and they really are much more convenient than any other method!

Answer 1

[Jan]

 it says that some function were not closed with an end statement

This is a full description of the problem already.

• If one function in an M-file is closed with an end, all functions in this file must be close with an end.
• Nested functions must be closed by an end, otherwise it would not be clear, where it ends.

Use the auto-indentation to get a fast overview over missing end 's: Ctrl-A Ctrl-I. The orange or red marks on the right column in the editor help also to locate the problem.

[Michael Daldini]

Ok, the error disappeard. Another question: is there a quick way to see if your function is actually working? It is annoying that even when I press the checkbutton it looks like nothing is happening (since we are in GUI, no variables are stored in the spacework, nothing visible really happens).

[Jan]

Do you mean the debugger? Simply set a break point in the left column in the editor. Then Matlab stops when the corresponding line is reached and you can control what happens in the code by stepping through it line by line.

[Michael Daldini]

Jan wasn't using the right gui, now I solved and it finally reacts to the changes. I will ask you the last question and then I will close it. When i run this code it says that the variable files doesn't exist ( i create it in the pushbutton function and use it in the checkbox function). I know I can make it global, is there another way to pass the variable?

function PB1_Callback(hObject, eventdata, handles)
.
.
.

columneditable = [true false];
columnformat = {'logical', 'char'};
set(handles.uitable2,'data', mydata,...
    'ColumnFormat', columnformat,...
    'ColumnEditable', columneditable,...
    'CellEditCallback',@fctCB);
files = cell(length(F),2);
end

function fctCB(hObject,eventdata)
if eventdata.NewData == 1
    % read the file only if it isn't already there
    if isempty(files{eventdata.Indices(1),1})
        fName = myData(eventdata.Indices(1),1);
        fileName = fopen(fName{1,1}, 'r');
        C = textscan(fileName, '%s %s %s', 'Delimiter', ';');
        % create two subcells in files at the index eventdata containing the force and displacement
        for i = 1:length(C{1,1})-17
            files{eventdata.Indices(1),1}{i,1} = str2num(C{1,1}{i+17});
            files{eventdata.Indices(1),2}{i,1} = str2num(C{1,2}{i+17});
        end
    end
    f1 = cell2mat(files{1,1});
    f2 = cell2mat(files{1,2});
    plot(f1,f2)
end

[Adam]

https://uk.mathworks.com/help/matlab/creating_guis/share-data-among-callbacks.html

[Jan]

You can use the "handles" struct:

function PB1_Callback(hObject, eventdata, handles)
...
handles.files = cell(length(F),2);
guidata(hObject, handles);
end

function fctCB(hObject,eventdata)
handles = guidata(hObject);
files   = handles.files;
...

Note that files is defined only after PB1_Callback ran. You could create a default value in the OpeningFcn of the GUI:

function OpeningFcn(hObject, EventData, ?handles?)
handles.files = {};
guidata(hObject, handles);
end

Adjust this to your needs. I do not work with GUIDE, so it is a guess, if handles is delivered as input to the OpeningFcn.

[Michael Daldini]

Hi Jan, thank you for the answer. when I do as you say, this error pops-up:

No appropriate method, property, or field 'files' for class 'matlab.ui.eventdata.ActionData'.

Error in Test_wone_file_1>fctCB (line 110) files = handles.files;

Error while evaluating Table CellEditCallback.

What am I doing wrong?

[Jan]

@Michael: Please post the relevant code. Otherwise I have to guess: Does you CellEditCallback start with:

function YourCellEditCallback(hObject, handles)

instead of the correct:

function YourCellEditCallback(hObject, EventData, handles)

?