How can I detect if a user has finished making selections from a multiple select listbox in MATLAB 7.12 (R2011a)?

I am enabling multiple selection for the Listbox object and I would like to detect customers' selections based on the release of the CTRL key.

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

The ability to detect key release for the list box object is not available in MATLAB 7.12 (R2011a). The KeyReleaseFCN is a valid callback for the figure objects but it is not triggered when the focus is on another object such as listbox.

There are two workarounds for this issue. The first workaround is to create a push button and ask the user to click this button when he completes the selection.

The second workaround is to implement the WindowKeyReleaseFcn callback function of the figure and manipulate the listbox if it has the focus.

      if(gco==handles.listbox1)  % the focus is on the list box, please replace listbox1 with corresponding id of your program

          if(strcmp(eventdata.Key,'control'))  % capture the control key, use '0' for command key in Mac

              indices=get(gco, 'value');  

              items=get(gco, 'string');

              set(handles.listbox2, 'string', items(indices)); %copy the items from one listbox to the other one

          end

      end