Replace uicontrol Function Calls

The uicontrol function has an argument for specifying the style of the control. Every UIControl style corresponds to a UI component object with similar functionality and appearance. In uifigure-based apps, replace calls to the uicontrol function with the corresponding UI component function. This table provides a list of the UIControl styles and the corresponding UI component function.

Some UI components have slightly different configurations and behavior than their UIControl equivalent. In many cases, you can update your code to adjust for these differences using the following steps.

fig = uifigure;
ef = uieditfield(fig,"numeric");

fig = uifigure;
btn = uibutton(fig,"BackgroundColor","blue");
cbx = uicheckbox(fig,"Position",[220 100 84 22]);

Update Component Properties

UI component objects and UIControl objects have many of the same properties. For example, both types of objects have Position, BackgroundColor, and FontSize properties. You can use the same code to set these properties for both UIControl objects and UI components.

However, if you set certain UIControl properties in your app, you might need to update the names or values of these properties when you transition to using UI components. This table lists some common properties of UIControl objects that differ from UI component properties and suggested actions to take if you set these properties in your code. If you encounter an error related to a property that is not listed in the table, see the properties page of the specific UI component to resolve the error. For a list of all UI components and links to their properties, see App Building Components.

Update Callbacks

UIControl objects have a Callback property. The callback function assigned to this property executes in response to a user interaction, where the interaction depends on the style of the UIControl. For every UIControl style, the corresponding UI component has an equivalent callback property, but the property name is specific to the user interaction it corresponds to. To transition your app code, wherever you assign a callback function to a Callback property, update the property name to the equivalent callback property for the UI component. This table lists the callback property names for each component type.

For example, this code creates a button UIControl object that prints a statement to the MATLAB^® Command Window when the user pushes the button.

c = uicontrol;
c.Style = "pushbutton";
c.Callback = @(src,event)disp("Button pushed");

fig = uifigure;
btn = uibutton(fig)
btn.ButtonPushedFcn = @(src,event)disp("Button pushed");

If your app uses a KeyPressFcn callback to respond while a user types in an 'edit' style UIControl object, instead consider using the ValueChangingFcn callback when you update your uicontrol function to uieditfield or uitextarea. The ValueChangingFcn callback of an edit field or text area component executes repeatedly as the user types in the component.

fig = uifigure;
ef = uieditfield(fig);
ef.ValueChangingFcn = @(src,event)disp("Typing...");

fig = uifigure;
lb = uilistbox(fig);
fig.WindowButtonDownFcn = {@processClick,lb};

function processClick(src,event,lb)
    if src.CurrentObject == lb
        disp("List box clicked")
    end
end

fig = uifigure;
lb = uilistbox(fig);
fig.WindowKeyPressFcn = {@processKeyPress,lb};

function processKeyPress(src,event,lb)
    if src.CurrentObject == lb
        disp("List box key pressed")
    end
end

fig = uifigure;
lb = uilistbox(fig);
fig.WindowKeyReleaseFcn = {@processKeyRelease,lb};

function processKeyRelease(src,event,lb)
    if src.CurrentObject == lb
        disp("List box key released")
    end
end