Programmatic App That Displays a Table

Create a Table UI Component Within a Figure

The uitable function creates an empty UI table in the figure.

fig = uifigure('Position',[100 100 752 250]);
uit = uitable('Parent',fig,'Position',[25 50 700 200]);

Create a Table Containing Mixed Data Types

Load sample patient data that contains mixed data types and store it in a table array. To have data appear as a drop-down list in the cells of the table component, convert a cell array variable to a categorical array. To display the data in the table UI component, specify the table array as the value of the Data property.

load patients
t = table(LastName,Age,Weight,Height,Smoker, ...
          SelfAssessedHealthStatus);
t.SelfAssessedHealthStatus = categorical(t.SelfAssessedHealthStatus, ...
          {'Poor','Fair','Good','Excellent'},'Ordinal',true);

uit.Data = t;

Customize the Display

You can customize the display of a UI table in several ways. Use the ColumnName property to add column headings.

uit.ColumnName = {'Last Name','Age','Weight', ...
                  'Height','Smoker','Health Status'};

To adjust the widths of the columns, specify the ColumnWidth property. The ColumnWidth property is a 1-by-N cell array, where N is the number of columns in the table. Set a specific column width, or use 'auto' to let MATLAB® set the width based on the contents.

uit.ColumnWidth = {'auto',75,'auto','auto','auto',100};

Add numbered row headings by setting the RowName property to 'numbered'.

uit.RowName = 'numbered';

Reposition and resize the table using the Position property.

uit.Position = [15 25 565 200];

By default, table UI components use row striping and cycle through the specified background colors until the end of the table is reached. If you set the RowStriping property to 'off', the table UI component will just use the first color specified in the BackgroundColor property for all rows. Here, leave row striping 'on' and set three different colors for the BackgroundColor property.

uit.BackgroundColor = [1 1 .9; .9 .95 1;1 .5 .5];

Enable Column Sorting and Restrict Editing of Cell Values

To restrict the user's ability to edit data in the table, set the ColumnEditable property. By default, data cannot be edited in the running app. Setting the ColumnEditable property to true for a column allows the user to edit data in that column.

uit.ColumnEditable = [false true true true true true];

Make all the columns sortable by setting the ColumnSortable property to true. If a column is sortable, arrows appear in the header when you hover your mouse over it.

uit.ColumnSortable = true;

Create a Callback

To program the table to respond to user interaction, create a callback function. For example, you can specify a SelectionChangedFcn to execute commands when the app user selects a different row, column, or cell of the table.

Here, write a callback function to validate that the values in the Age column are between 0 and 120. Create a new function named ageCheckCB and save it to a file named ageCheckCB in a folder that is on the MATLAB path.

function ageCheckCB(src,event)
if (event.Indices(2) == 2 && ...                  % check if column 2
      (event.NewData < 0 || event.NewData > 120))
   tableData = src.Data;
   tableData{event.Indices(1),event.Indices(2)} = event.PreviousData;
   src.Data = tableData;                              % revert the data
   warning('Age must be between 0 and 120.')          % warn the user
end

Assign the ageCheckCB to the CellEditCallback property. This callback executes when the user changes a value in a cell. If the user enters a value that is outside the acceptable range, the callback function returns a warning and sets the cell value back to the previous value.

uit.CellEditCallback = @ageCheckCB;

For more information about writing callback functions, see Create Callbacks for Apps Created Programmatically.

Get All Table Properties

To see all the properties of the table, use the get command.

get(uit)

          BackgroundColor: [3x3 double]
             BeingDeleted: off
               BusyAction: 'queue'
            ButtonDownFcn: ''
         CellEditCallback: @ageCheckCB
    CellSelectionCallback: ''
                 Children: [0x0 handle]
               ClickedFcn: ''
           ColumnEditable: [0 1 1 1 1 1]
             ColumnFormat: {}
               ColumnName: {6x1 cell}
      ColumnRearrangeable: off
           ColumnSortable: 1
              ColumnWidth: {'auto'  [75]  'auto'  'auto'  'auto'  [100]}
              ContextMenu: [0x0 GraphicsPlaceholder]
                CreateFcn: ''
                     Data: [100x6 table]
                DeleteFcn: ''
              DisplayData: [100x6 table]
    DisplayDataChangedFcn: ''
         DisplaySelection: []
         DoubleClickedFcn: ''
                   Enable: 'on'
                   Extent: [0 0 312.5000 312.5000]
                FontAngle: 'normal'
                 FontName: 'Helvetica'
                 FontSize: 12
                FontUnits: 'pixels'
               FontWeight: 'normal'
          ForegroundColor: [0 0 0]
         HandleVisibility: 'on'
            InnerPosition: [15 25 565 200]
            Interruptible: on
              KeyPressFcn: ''
            KeyReleaseFcn: ''
                   Layout: [0x0 matlab.ui.layout.LayoutOptions]
              Multiselect: on
            OuterPosition: [15 25 565 200]
                   Parent: [1x1 Figure]
                 Position: [15 25 565 200]
                  RowName: 'numbered'
              RowStriping: on
                Selection: []
      SelectionChangedFcn: ''
            SelectionType: 'cell'
      StyleConfigurations: [0x3 table]
                      Tag: ''
                  Tooltip: ''
                     Type: 'uitable'
                    Units: 'pixels'
                 UserData: []
                  Visible: on