ProgressDialog

Progress dialog box

Description

A progress dialog box indicates that an operation is in progress by displaying an animated progress bar. Use the ProgressDialog object to modify the appearance and behavior of a progress dialog box after you create it.

Creation

Create a progress dialog box in an app using the uiprogressdlg function.

Properties

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Text and Styling

`Message` — message
`''` (default) | character vector | cell array of character vectors | string array

Message, specified as a character vector, cell array of character vectors, or string array. The message displays within the dialog box, above the progress bar.

To display multiple lines of text, specify a cell array of character vectors or a string array. Each element in the array corresponds to a line of text. Hard breaks within each element, such as '\n', create additional lines of text.

Example: d = uiprogressdlg(uifigure,'Message','Calculating result.');

`Title` — Title
`''` (default) | character vector | string scalar

Title, specified as a character vector or a string scalar. The title displays in the title bar of the dialog box.

Example: d = uiprogressdlg(uifigure,'Title','Calculating');

`Icon` — Predefined or custom icon
`''` (default) | character vector | string scalar | truecolor image array

Predefined or custom icon, specified as a character vector, string scalar, or truecolor image array.

Predefined Icon

This table lists the values to specify the predefined icons.

Value	Icon
`''` (default)	No icon added.
`'question'`
`'info'`
`'success'`
`'warning'`
`'error'`

Custom Icon

Specify a custom icon as one of these values:

A character vector or string scalar that specifies the file name of an SVG, JPEG, GIF, or PNG image that is on the MATLAB^® path. Alternatively, you can specify a full path to the image file.
A truecolor image array. See Working with Image Types in MATLAB for more information.

`Interpreter` — Dialog text interpreter
`'none'` (default) | `'tex'` | `'latex'` | `'html'`

Dialog text interpreter, specified as:

'none' — Display literal characters.
'tex'— Interpret text using a subset of TeX markup.
'latex'— Interpret text using a subset of LaTeX markup.
'html'— Interpret text using a subset of HTML markup.

TeX Markup

Use TeX markup to add superscripts and subscripts and to include special characters in the text.

Modifiers remain in effect until the end of the text. Superscripts and subscripts are an exception because they modify only the next character or the characters within the curly braces. When you set the interpreter to 'tex', the supported modifiers are as follows.

Modifier	Description	Example
`^{ }`	Superscript	`'text^{superscript}'`
`_{ }`	Subscript	`'text_{subscript}'`
`\bf`	Bold font	`'\bf text'`
`\it`	Italic font	`'\it text'`
`\sl`	Oblique font (usually the same as italic font)	`'\sl text'`
`\rm`	Normal font	`'\rm text'`
`\fontname{specifier}`	Font name — Replace `specifier` with the name of a font family. You can use this in combination with other modifiers.	`'\fontname{Courier} text'`
`\fontsize{specifier}`	Font size —Replace `specifier` with a numeric scalar value in point units.	`'\fontsize{15} text'`
`\color{specifier}`	Font color — Replace `specifier` with one of these colors: `red`, `green`, `yellow`, `magenta`, `blue`, `black`, `white`, `gray`, `darkGreen`, `orange`, or `lightBlue`.	`'\color{magenta} text'`
`\color[rgb]{specifier}`	Custom font color — Replace `specifier` with a three-element RGB triplet.	`'\color[rgb]{0,0.5,0.5} text'`

This table lists the supported special characters for the 'tex' interpreter.

Character Sequence	Symbol	Character Sequence	Symbol	Character Sequence	Symbol
`\alpha`	α	`\upsilon`	υ	`\sim`	~
`\angle`	∠	`\phi`	ϕ	`\leq`	≤
`\ast`	`*`	`\chi`	χ	`\infty`	∞
`\beta`	β	`\psi`	ψ	`\clubsuit`	♣
`\gamma`	γ	`\omega`	ω	`\diamondsuit`	♦
`\delta`	δ	`\Gamma`	Γ	`\heartsuit`	♥
`\epsilon`	ϵ	`\Delta`	Δ	`\spadesuit`	♠
`\zeta`	ζ	`\Theta`	Θ	`\leftrightarrow`	↔
`\eta`	η	`\Lambda`	Λ	`\leftarrow`	←
`\theta`	θ	`\Xi`	Ξ	`\Leftarrow`	⇐
`\vartheta`	ϑ	`\Pi`	Π	`\uparrow`	↑
`\iota`	ι	`\Sigma`	Σ	`\rightarrow`	→
`\kappa`	κ	`\Upsilon`	ϒ	`\Rightarrow`	⇒
`\lambda`	λ	`\Phi`	Φ	`\downarrow`	↓
`\mu`	µ	`\Psi`	Ψ	`\circ`	º
`\nu`	ν	`\Omega`	Ω	`\pm`	±
`\xi`	ξ	`\forall`	∀	`\geq`	≥
`\pi`	π	`\exists`	∃	`\propto`	∝
`\rho`	ρ	`\ni`	∍	`\partial`	∂
`\sigma`	σ	`\cong`	≅	`\bullet`	•
`\varsigma`	ς	`\approx`	≈	`\div`	÷
`\tau`	τ	`\Re`	ℜ	`\neq`	≠
`\equiv`	≡	`\oplus`	⊕	`\aleph`	ℵ
`\Im`	ℑ	`\cup`	∪	`\wp`	℘
`\otimes`	⊗	`\subseteq`	⊆	`\oslash`	∅
`\cap`	∩	`\in`	∈	`\supseteq`	⊇
`\supset`	⊃	`\lceil`	⌈	`\subset`	⊂
`\int`	∫	`\cdot`	·	`\o`	ο
`\rfloor`	⌋	`\neg`	¬	`\nabla`	∇
`\lfloor`	⌊	`\times`	x	`\ldots`	...
`\perp`	⊥	`\surd`	√	`\prime`	´
`\wedge`	∧	`\varpi`	ϖ	`\0`	∅
`\rceil`	⌉	`\rangle`	〉	`\mid`	\|
`\vee`	∨	`\langle`	〈	`\copyright`	©

LaTeX Markup

Use LaTeX markup to format and display mathematical expressions, equations, and special characters. Use dollar symbols around the marked up text. For example, use '$\int_1^{20} x^2 dx$' for inline mode or '$$\int_1^{20} x^2 dx$$' for display mode.

The displayed text uses the default LaTeX font style. You can use LaTeX markup to change the font style.

MATLAB supports most standard LaTeX math mode commands. For more information, see Supported LaTeX Commands.

HTML Markup

Use HTML markup to display links and customize font styles.

The interpreter supports a subset of HTML markup. As a general guideline, the interpreter supports text-related tags and styles. Unsupported tags and styles are ignored.

This table lists the supported elements and element attributes.

HTML Element	Attributes	Description
`a`	`style`, `target`, `href`, `title`	Hyperlink
`abbr`	`style`, `title`	Abbreviation or acronym
`address`	`style`	Contact information
`article`	`style`	Self-contained, independent content
`aside`	`style`	Content indirectly related to the main content
`b`	`style`	Bold text
`bdi`	`style`, `dir`	Content formatted in a different direction from surrounding text
`bdo`	`style`, `dir`	Content formatted in a different direction from surrounding text
`big`	`style`	Text one font size level larger than surrounding text (obsolete in HTML5)
`blockquote`	`style`, `cite`	Extended quotation
`br`	n/a	Line break
`caption`	`style`	Caption or title of a table
`center`	`style`	Content centered horizontally
`cite`	`style`	Title of a creative work
`code`	`style`	Fragment of code
`col`	`style`, `align`, `valign`, `span`, `width`	Column within a table
`colgroup`	`style`, `align`, `valign`, `span`, `width`	Group of columns within a table
`dd`	`style`	Term or value in a description list
`del`	`style`, `datetime`	Text that was deleted from a document
`details`	`style`, `open`	Interactive widget with text visible only when toggled to 'open' state
`dl`	`style`	Description list
`dt`	`style`	Term or value in a description list
`em`	`style`	Emphasized text (typically displayed in italic)
`font`	`style`, `color`, `size`, `face`	Text with specified font properties (obsolete in HTML5)
`footer`	`style`	Footer
`h1`. `h2`, `h3`, `h4`, `h5`, `h6`	`style`	Section heading — `<h1>` is the highest level of heading and `<h6>` is the lowest
`header`	`style`	Introductory content
`hr`	`style`	Thematic break
`i`	`style`	Text offset from the surrounding content — by default rendered as italic
`ins`	`style`, `datetime`	Text inserted into a document
`li`	`style`	Item in a list
`mark`	`style`	Marked or highlighted text
`ol`	`style`	Ordered list
`p`	`style`	Paragraph
`pre`	`style`	Preformatted text
`s`	`style`	Text with a strikethrough
`strike`	`style`	Text with a strikethrough (obsolete in HTML5)
`section`	`style`	Standalone section
`small`	`style`	Text one font size level smaller than surrounding text (obsolete in HTML5)
`sub`	`style`	Subscript
`sup`	`style`	Superscript
`strong`	`style`	Text with strong importance
`table`	`style`, `width`, `border`, `align`, `valign`	Table
`tbody`	`style`, `align`, `valign`	Table body
`td`	`style`, `width`, `rowspan`, `colspan`, `align`, `valign`	Table data cell
`tfoot`	`style`, `align`, `valign`	Set of table rows that summarize the table columns
`th`	`style`, `width`, `rowspan`, `colspan`, `align`, `valign`	Table data cell specified as a header of a group of cells
`thead`	`style`, `align`, `valign`	Set of table rows that specify the column heads
`tr`	`style`, `rowspan`, `align`, `valign`	Row of table cells
`tt`	`style`	Monospace text (obsolete in HTML5)
`u`	`style`	Text with an unarticulated annotation — by default rendered as an underline
`ul`	`style`	Unordered list

For more information about these elements, see https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element.

To use HTML markup to create a hyperlink that runs MATLAB code, see Create Hyperlinks that Run Functions.

You can use HTML style attributes to format HTML content. A style attribute is a string of CSS attributes and their values.

These CSS attributes are supported:

background-color
border-bottom
border-bottom-color
border-bottom-left-radius
border-bottom-right-radius
border-bottom-style
border-bottom-width
border-left
border-left-color
border-left-style
border-left-width
border-radius
border-right
border-right-color
border-right-style
border-right-width
border-spacing
border-style
border-top
border-top-color
border-top-left-radius
border-top-right-radius
border-top-style
border-top-width
border-width
color
direction
font-family
font-size
font-style
font-weight
height
hidden
line-height
margin
margin-bottom
margin-left
margin-right
margin-top
max-height
max-width
min-height
min-width
overflow
overflow-wrap
overflow-x
overflow-y
padding
padding-bottom
padding-left
padding-right
padding-top
text-align
text-anchor
text-decoration
text-indent
text-overflow
text-shadow
text-transform
title
translate
white-space
width

For more information about these attributes, see https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Reference.

Progress

`Value` — Fraction complete
`0` (default) | number between `0` and `1`

Fraction complete, specified as a number between 0 and 1. The progress bar reaches its full length when the value is 1. Change Value at different points in your code to provide a visual indication of progress in the running app.

Data Types: double

`ShowPercentage` — Show percentage
`'off'` (default) | on/off logical value

Show percentage, specified as 'off' or 'on', 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.

Set this property to 'on' to display the fraction complete as a percentage in the dialog box.

`Indeterminate` — Indeterminate progress
`'off'` (default) | on/off logical value

Indeterminate progress, specified as 'off' or 'on', 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.

Set this property to 'on' to provide an animated bar without any specific progress information. This animation is useful when you do not know how long a calculation will take.

To prevent indeterminate progress bars from displaying indefinitely, call the close function after completing your calculations.

Interactivity

`Cancelable` — Allow cancellation
`'off'` (default) | on/off logical value

Allow cancellation, specified as 'off' or 'on', 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.

A value of 'on' displays a cancel button in the dialog box. You can customize the button label by specifying the CancelText property.

When you allow cancellation, you must check the value of the CancelRequested property, and call the close function when the value is true. Otherwise, the dialog box displays indefinitely.

`CancelText` — Cancel button text
`'Cancel'` (default) | character vector | string scalar

Cancel button text, specified as a character vector or string scalar. This property has an effect only when the Cancelable property is set to 'on'.

Example: d = uiprogressdlg(uifigure,'Cancelable','on','CancelText','Stop')

`CancelRequested` — Cancel requested
`true` | `false`

Cancel requested, specified as true or false. Use this property when Cancelable is 'on', and you want to know whether the user clicked the cancel button. This property is false until the user clicks the cancel button, then the value changes to true.

Examples

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Determinate Progress Bar

Create a program file called myprogress1.m that creates a figure and a progress dialog box. Update the Value and Message properties at three different points in the code.

function myprogress1
    fig = uifigure;
    d = uiprogressdlg(fig,'Title','Please Wait',...
        'Message','Opening the application');
    pause(.5)

    % Perform calculations
    % ...
    d.Value = .33; 
    d.Message = 'Loading your data';
    pause(1)

    % Perform calculations
    % ...
    d.Value = .67;
    d.Message = 'Processing the data';
    pause(1)

    % Finish calculations
    % ...
    d.Value = 1;
    d.Message = 'Finishing';
    pause(1)

    % Close dialog box
    close(d)
end

Run the program to display the progress dialog box.

myprogress1

Progress dialog box with title "Please Wait" and text "Loading your data". The progress bar length is about 1/3 of the full length.

Indeterminate Progress Bar

Create a program file called myprogress2.m that creates a figure and displays an indeterminate progress bar during a singular value decomposition.

function myprogress2
    fig = uifigure;
    d = uiprogressdlg(fig,'Title','Computing SVD',...
        'Indeterminate','on');
    drawnow
    
    % Do the SVD computation
    svd(rand(5000));

    % close the dialog box
    close(d)
end

Setting the Indeterminate property to 'on' animates the progress bar to indicate that there is no projected completion time. After completing the calculation, the close function closes the dialog box.

Run the program to perform the singular value decomposition and display the progress dialog box.

myprogress2

Progress dialog box with title "Computing SVD" and an indeterminate progress bar

Determinate Progress Bar with Cancel Button

Create a program file called myprogress3.m that creates a figure and displays a progress bar while approximating the value of pi.

function myprogress3
    fig = uifigure;
    d = uiprogressdlg(fig,'Title','Approximating Pi',...
        'Message','1','Cancelable','on');
    drawnow

    % Approximate pi^2/8 as: 1 + 1/9 + 1/25 + 1/49 + ...
    pisqover8 = 1;
    denom = 3;
    valueofpi = sqrt(8 * pisqover8);
    steps = 20000;
    for step = 1:steps 
        % Check for Cancel button press
        if d.CancelRequested
            break
        end
        % Update progress, report current estimate
        d.Value = step/steps;
        d.Message = sprintf('%12.9f',valueofpi);

        % Calculate next estimate
        pisqover8 = pisqover8 + 1 / (denom * denom);
        denom = denom + 2;
        valueofpi = sqrt(8 * pisqover8);
    end

    % Close the dialog box
    close(d)
end

Setting the Cancelable property to 'on' creates a cancel button with the default label, Cancel. The first command in the for loop checks the value of d.CancelRequested to see if the user clicked the cancel button. If the value is true, the program exits the loop. Finally, the close(d) command closes the dialog box after the for loop finishes or the user cancels.

Run the program to approximate pi and display the progress dialog box.

myprogress3

$Progress dialog box with title "Approximating Pi". The dialog box text is an approximation of pi, and the progress bar length is a fraction of the full length.$

Customize Progress Dialog Box Appearance

Specify a custom icon and format message text using HTML to modify the appearance of the progress dialog box.

Create a program file called myprogress4.m that creates a figure and displays a progress bar. Specify an image file as the dialog box icon, and then specify that the dialog box interpret its message text as HTML. Create a matrix of RGB color values using the winter colormap. Use a for loop to update the progress bar value and to format and display the message color by using HTML markup. Close the dialog box when the loop completes.

function myprogress4
    fig = uifigure;
    d = uiprogressdlg(fig,'Icon','peppers.png', ...
        'Interpreter','html');

    steps = 100;
    cmap = winter(steps)*100;
    for step = 1:steps
        r = num2str(cmap(step,1));
        g = num2str(cmap(step,2));
        b = num2str(cmap(step,3));
        msg = ['<p style=color:rgb(' r '%,' g '%,' b '%)> Calculating... </p>'];
        d.Message = msg;
        d.Value = step/steps;
        pause(0.05);
    end

    close(d)
end

Run the program to display the progress dialog box.

myprogress4

Version History

Introduced in R2018a

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R2021b: Style text and display equations

Use the Interpreter property to enable markup in the dialog box text. Specify the interpreter as 'html', 'latex', 'tex', or 'none'.