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close

Close one or more figures

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Syntax

close
close(fig)
close all
close all hidden
close all force
status = close(___)

Description

close closes the current figure. Calling close is equivalent to calling close(gcf).

example

close(fig) closes the figure specified by fig.

example

close all closes all figures whose handles are visible. A figure handle is hidden if the HandleVisibility property is set to 'callback' or 'off'.

example

close all hidden closes all figures, including figures with hidden handles.

example

close all force closes all figures, including figures for which the CloseRequestFcn callback has been specified to prevent users from closing the figure window.

example

status = close(___) returns the status of the close operation for any of the previous syntaxes. The function returns 1 if the figure or figures close and 0 otherwise. When specifying the output status, you must enclose input arguments that are character vectors in parentheses; for example, status = close('all','hidden').

example

Examples

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Open Live Script

Create two figures, each with a line plot.

f1 = figure;
plot(1:10)

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains an object of type line.

f2 = figure;
plot((1:10).^2)

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains an object of type line.

Close the first figure and display the value of f1.

close(f1)
f1
f1 = 
  handle to deleted Figure

Close the current figure.

close
Open Live Script

Create three figures, and then create a line plot. By default, the plot function targets the current figure (f3).

f1 = figure;
f2 = figure;
f3 = figure;
plot(1:10)

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains an object of type line.

Close figures f1 and f2 simultaneously.

close([f1 f2])
Open Live Script

Create two figures with specified numbers. Include a line plot in each figure.

figure(1)
plot(1:10)

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains an object of type line.

figure(2)
plot((1:10).^2)

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains an object of type line.

Close the second figure by passing its number to the close function.

close(2)
Open Live Script

Create a figure, specify its name, and then create a line plot.

figure('Name','Measured Data');
plot(1:10)

Figure Measured Data contains an axes object. The axes object contains an object of type line.

Close the figure using its name.

close('Measured Data')
Open Live Script

Create two figures, each with a line plot.

f1 = figure;
plot(1:10)

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains an object of type line.

f2 = figure;
plot((1:10).^2)

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains an object of type line.

Close figure f1. Verify that the figure is closed by displaying its status.

status = close(f1)
status = 
1
Open Live Script

Create three figures whose handles are visible, and include a line plot in each figure.

f1 = figure;
plot(1:10)

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains an object of type line.

f2 = figure;
plot((1:10).^2)

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains an object of type line.

f3 = figure;
plot(1./(1:10))

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains an object of type line.

Close all of the figures simultaneously.

close all
Open Live Script

Create three figures, each with a line plot. Set the HandleVisibility property of the last figure to 'off'.

f1 = figure;
plot(1:10)

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains an object of type line.

f2 = figure;
plot((1:10).^2)

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains an object of type line.

f3 = figure('HandleVisibility','off');
plot(1./(1:10))

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains an object of type line.

Close all of the figures. Notice that you cannot close f3 by calling close all because it has a hidden handle. 

close all hidden
Open Live Script

The CloseRequestFcn property enables you to specify a close request callback, which executes whenever a user attempts to close the figure window. For example, you can display a dialog box asking to confirm or cancel the close operation or to prevent users from closing a figure that contains a UI.

Create a figure whose window cannot be closed by setting the CloseRequestFcn property to an empty character vector. Then, add a line plot to the figure.

f1 = figure('CloseRequestFcn','');
plot(1:10)

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains an object of type line.

Create a second figure with a line plot.

f2 = figure;
plot((1:10).^2)

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains an object of type line.

If you try to close the figures using the close all syntax, MATLAB® closes only f2. To close both f1 and f2, use the close all force syntax.

close all force

Input Arguments

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Figure to close, specified as one or more Figure objects, figure numbers, or figure names.

  • If fig is a figure number, MATLAB® searches for an existing figure in which the Number property is equal to fig. By default, the Number property value is displayed in the title of the figure.

  • If fig is a figure name, MATLAB searches for an existing figure in which the Name property is equal to fig.

Example: close(f) closes the figure with handle f.

Example: close([f1 f2]) closes the figures with handles f1 and f2.

Example: close(1) closes the figure with number 1.

Example: close([1 2]) closes the figures with numbers 1 and 2.

Example: close('My Figure') closes the figure with name 'My Figure'.

Example: close('My First Figure','My Second Figure') closes the figures with names 'My First Figure' and 'My Second Figure'.

Tips

  • To delete all figures unconditionally, use these statements:

    set(groot,'ShowHiddenHandles','on')
c = get(groot,'Children');
delete(c)

  • When implementing a CloseRequestFcn callback, do not use a call to close. Calling close in the body of the callback sets up a recursion that results in a MATLAB warning. Instead, implement the callback using the delete function. delete removes the figure without executing the CloseRequestFcn callback.

  • If you call close on a figure without specifying the CloseRequestFcn property, the default value of the property, closereq, unconditionally deletes the figure and closes its window. To prevent deletion when calling close, implement a CloseRequestFcn callback.

Algorithms

The close function evaluates the CloseRequestFcn property of the specified figure f using this statement:

eval(get(f,'CloseRequestFcn'))

CloseRequestFcn enables you to either delay or abort the closing of a figure once close has been invoked. For example, you can display a dialog box to confirm that the user really wants to close the figure or save and clean up before closing.

The default value of CloseRequestFcn, closereq, closes the current figure using delete(get(groot,'CurrentFigure')). If you specify an array of figure handles, close executes the callback specified by CloseRequestFcn for each figure.

If an error terminates the execution of a CloseRequestFcn callback, then the figure is not closed.

Version History

Introduced before R2006a

See Also

Functions

Properties