EditField

Text in the edit field, specified as a character vector or string scalar. MATLAB^® displays the text as a single line. If you want to allow multiple lines of text, use a text area component instead of an edit field.

Example: 'Hello world'

Minimum and maximum number of characters of edit field text, specified as a two-element numeric array. The first value must be less than or equal to the second value, and both values must be nonnegative. To specify no upper limit, set the second array element to Inf.

If you change CharacterLimits such that the number of characters in Value falls outside of the new limits, MATLAB resets Value to ''. For example, suppose CharacterLimits is [0 5] and Value is 'Hello'. If you change CharacterLimits to [6 Inf], then MATLAB sets Value to ''.

If you specify a lower limit that is greater than 0, it is still possible for Value to be '' in these settings:

Example: [0 3]

Example: [5 5]

Example: [2 Inf]

Valid text content, specified as one of these values:

Placeholder text in the edit field, specified as a character vector or string scalar. The placeholder provides a short hint to describe the expected input. The text shows only when the Value property is ''.

Example: 'Enter text'

Alignment of text within the edit field, specified as 'left', 'right', or 'center'. The alignment affects the display as the app user edits the edit field and how MATLAB displays the text in the app.

Font name, specified as a system supported font name. The default font depends on the specific operating system and locale.

If the specified font is not available, then MATLAB uses the best match among the fonts available on the system where the app is running.

Example: 'Arial'

Font size, specified as a positive number. The units of measurement are pixels. The default font size depends on the specific operating system and locale.

Example: 14

Font weight, specified as one of these values:

Not all fonts have a bold font weight. For fonts that do not, specifying 'bold' results in the normal font weight.

Font angle, specified as 'normal' or 'italic'. Not all fonts have an italic font angle. For fonts that do not, specifying 'italic' results in the normal font angle.

Font color, specified as an RGB triplet, a hexadecimal color code, or one of the options listed in the table.

RGB triplets and hexadecimal color codes are useful for specifying custom colors.

Alternatively, you can specify some common colors by name. This table lists the named color options, the equivalent RGB triplets, and hexadecimal color codes.

Here are the RGB triplets and hexadecimal color codes for the default colors MATLAB uses in many types of plots.

Background color, specified as an RGB triplet, a hexadecimal color code, or one of the color options listed in the table.

RGB triplets and hexadecimal color codes are useful for specifying custom colors.

Alternatively, you can specify some common colors by name. This table lists the named color options, the equivalent RGB triplets, and hexadecimal color codes.

Here are the RGB triplets and hexadecimal color codes for the default colors MATLAB uses in many types of plots.

State of visibility, specified as 'on' or 'off', or as numeric or logical 1 (true) or 0 (false). A value of 'on' is equivalent to true, and 'off' is equivalent to false. Thus, you can use the value of this property as a logical value. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.

To make your app start faster, set the Visible property to 'off' for all UI components that do not need to appear at startup.

Whether the edit field is editable, specified as 'on' or 'off', or as numeric or logical 1 (true) or 0 (false). A value of 'on' is equivalent to true, and 'off' is equivalent to false. Thus, you can use the value of this property as a logical value. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.

Use this property in combination with the Enable property value to determine if and how the component responds to app user input:

Operational state of the edit field, specified as 'on' or 'off', or as numeric or logical 1 (true) or 0 (false). A value of 'on' is equivalent to true, and 'off' is equivalent to false. Thus, you can use the value of this property as a logical value. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.

Use this property in combination with the Editable property value to determine if and how the component responds to app user input:

Tooltip, specified as a character vector, cell array of character vectors, string array, or 1-D categorical array. Use this property to display a message when the user hovers the pointer over the component at run time. The tooltip displays even when the component is disabled. To display multiple lines of text, specify a cell array of character vectors or a string array. Each element in the array becomes a separate line of text. If you specify this property as a categorical array, MATLAB uses the values in the array, not the full set of categories.

Context menu, specified as a ContextMenu object created using the uicontextmenu function. Use this property to display a context menu when you right-click on a component.

Location and size of the edit field relative to the parent, specified as the vector [left bottom width height]. This table describes each element in the vector.

All measurements are in pixel units.

The Position values are relative to the drawable area of the parent container. The drawable area is the area inside the borders of the container and does not include the area occupied by decorations such as a menu bar or title.

Example: [150 130 100 22]

Inner location and size of the edit field, specified as [left bottom width height]. Position values are relative to the parent container. All measurements are in pixel units. This property value is identical to the Position property.

This property is read-only.

Outer location and size of edit field returned as [left bottom width height]. Position values are relative to the parent container. All measurements are in pixel units. This property value is identical to the Position property.

Layout options, specified as a GridLayoutOptions object. This property specifies options for components that are children of grid layout containers. If the component is not a child of a grid layout container (for example, it is a child of a figure or panel), then this property is empty and has no effect. However, if the component is a child of a grid layout container, you can place the component in the desired row and column of the grid by setting the Row and Column properties on the GridLayoutOptions object.

For example, this code places an edit field in the third row and second column of its parent grid.

g = uigridlayout([4 3]);
ef = uieditfield(g);
ef.Layout.Row = 3;
ef.Layout.Column = 2;

To make the edit field span multiple rows or columns, specify the Row or Column property as a two-element vector. For example, this edit field spans columns 2 through 3:

ef.Layout.Column = [2 3];

Value changed callback, specified as one of these values:

The callback executes when the user changes text in the edit field and either presses Enter or clicks outside the edit field. It does not execute if the edit field value changes programmatically.

This callback function can access specific information about the user’s interaction with the edit field. MATLAB passes this information in a ValueChangedData object as the second argument to your callback function. In App Designer, the argument is called event. You can query the object properties using dot notation. For example, event.PreviousValue returns the previous value of the edit field. The ValueChangedData object is not available to callback functions specified as character vectors.

The following table lists the properties of the ValueChangedData object.

For more information about writing callbacks, see Callbacks in App Designer.

Value changing callback, specified as one of these values:

This callback executes as follows:

If the edit field value changes programmatically, then the callback does not execute.

This callback function can access specific information about the user’s interaction with the edit field. MATLAB passes this information in a ValueChangingData object as the second argument to your callback function. In App Designer, the argument is called event. You can query the object properties using dot notation. For example, event.Value is the value in the edit field that triggered the execution of the callback. The ValueChangingData object is not available to callback functions specified as character vectors.

Here are the properties of the ValueChangingData object:

The Value property of the EditField object is not updated until the user presses the Enter key. However, you can get the text that the user is typing before they press Enter by querying the Value property of the ValueChangingData object.

For more information about writing callbacks, see Callbacks in App Designer.

Object creation function, specified as one of these values:

For more information about specifying a callback as a function handle, cell array, or character vector, see Callbacks in App Designer.

This property specifies a callback function to execute when MATLAB creates the object. MATLAB initializes all property values before executing the CreateFcn callback. If you do not specify the CreateFcn property, then MATLAB executes a default creation function.

Setting the CreateFcn property on an existing component has no effect.

If you specify this property as a function handle or cell array, you can access the object that is being created using the first argument of the callback function. Otherwise, use the gcbo function to access the object.

Object deletion function, specified as one of these values:

For more information about specifying a callback as a function handle, cell array, or character vector, see Callbacks in App Designer.

This property specifies a callback function to execute when MATLAB deletes the object. MATLAB executes the DeleteFcn callback before destroying the properties of the object. If you do not specify the DeleteFcn property, then MATLAB executes a default deletion function.

If you specify this property as a function handle or cell array, you can access the object that is being deleted using the first argument of the callback function. Otherwise, use the gcbo function to access the object.

Callback interruption, specified as 'on' or 'off', or as numeric or logical 1 (true) or 0 (false). A value of 'on' is equivalent to true, and 'off' is equivalent to false. Thus, you can use the value of this property as a logical value. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.

This property determines if a running callback can be interrupted. There are two callback states to consider:

MATLAB determines callback interruption behavior whenever it executes a command that processes the callback queue. These commands include drawnow, figure, uifigure, getframe, waitfor, and pause.

If the running callback does not contain one of these commands, then no interruption occurs. MATLAB first finishes executing the running callback, and later executes the interrupting callback.

If the running callback does contain one of these commands, then the Interruptible property of the object that owns the running callback determines if the interruption occurs:

Callback queuing, specified as 'queue' or 'cancel'. The BusyAction property determines how MATLAB handles the execution of interrupting callbacks. There are two callback states to consider:

The BusyAction property determines callback queuing behavior only when both of these conditions are met:

Under these conditions, the BusyAction property of the object that owns the interrupting callback determines how MATLAB handles the interrupting callback. These are possible values of the BusyAction property:

This property is read-only.

Deletion status, returned as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.

MATLAB sets the BeingDeleted property to 'on' when the DeleteFcn callback begins execution. The BeingDeleted property remains set to 'on' until the component object no longer exists.

Check the value of the BeingDeleted property to verify that the object is not about to be deleted before querying or modifying it.

Parent container, specified as a Figure object created using the uifigure function, or one of its child containers: Tab, Panel, ButtonGroup, or GridLayout. If no container is specified, MATLAB calls the uifigure function to create a new Figure object that serves as the parent container.

Visibility of the object handle, specified as 'on', 'callback', or 'off'.

This property controls the visibility of the object in its parent's list of children. When an object is not visible in its parent's list of children, it is not returned by functions that obtain objects by searching the object hierarchy or querying properties. These functions include get, findobj, clf, and close. Objects are valid even if they are not visible. If you can access an object, you can set and get its properties, and pass it to any function that operates on objects.

This property is read-only.

Type of graphics object, returned as 'uieditfield'.

Object identifier, specified as a character vector or string scalar. You can specify a unique Tag value to serve as an identifier for an object. When you need access to the object elsewhere in your code, you can use the findobj function to search for the object based on the Tag value.

User data, specified as any MATLAB array. For example, you can specify a scalar, vector, matrix, cell array, character array, table, or structure. Use this property to store arbitrary data on an object.

If you are working in App Designer, create public or private properties in the app to share data instead of using the UserData property. For more information, see Share Data Within App Designer Apps.