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uilistbox

Create list box component

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Syntax

lb = uilistbox
lb = uilistbox(parent)
lb = uilistbox(___,Name,Value)

Description

lb = uilistbox creates a list box in a new figure window and returns the ListBox object. MATLAB® calls the uifigure function to create the figure.

lb = uilistbox(parent) creates the list box in the specified parent container. The parent can be a figure created using the uifigure function or one of its child containers.

example

lb = uilistbox(___,Name,Value) creates the list box with properties specified by one or more name-value arguments. Use this option with any of the input argument combinations in the previous syntaxes. For example, uilistbox("Multiselect","on") creates a list box that allows an app user to select multiple items.

example

Examples

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Open Live Script

Create a list box in a UI figure.

fig = uifigure;
lb = uilistbox(fig);

Figure contains an object of type uilistbox.

Open Live Script

Create a list box in a UI figure, and specify the list box items.

fig = uifigure;
lb = uilistbox(fig,"Items",["Australia","France","Germany"]);

Figure contains an object of type uilistbox.

Query the value of the selected item.

val = lb.Value
val = 
'Australia'

Programmatically update the list box selection.

lb.Value = "Germany";

Figure contains an object of type uilistbox.

Create a list box in a UI figure. Allow the app users to select multiple items.

fig = uifigure;
lb = uilistbox(fig,"Multiselect","on");

Select multiple items in the list box by holding Ctrl while clicking.

List box in a UI figure with four items: "Item 1", "Item 2", "Item 3", and "Item 4". The pointer is on "Item 4", and both "Item 2" and "Item 4" are selected.

The Value property stores all selected items as a cell array.

val = lb.Value
val =

  1×2 cell array

    {'Item 2'}    {'Item 4'}
Open Live Script

Create a list box in a UI figure, and specify a list of color names that appear in the list box by setting the Items property. 

fig = uifigure;
lb = uilistbox(fig,"Items",["Red","Green","Blue"]);

Figure contains an object of type uilistbox.

When there is no data associated with the items, the Value property of the list box is an element of Items.

val = lb.Value
val = 
'Red'

Associate hex color data with the list box items by setting the ItemsData property. Setting ItemsData does not change how the items are displayed to the app user.

lb.ItemsData = ["#F00","#0F0","#00F"];

Figure contains an object of type uilistbox.

When the ItemsData property is nonempty, the Value property of the list box is an element of ItemsData.

val = lb.Value
val = 
"#F00"

Specifying ItemsData can make it easier to perform operations associated with the selected item. For example, plot some data in the selected color by passing the hex color value directly to the plot function.

plot(1:10,"Color",lb.Value)

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

Open Live Script

Create an app that updates the colormap of a chart when a user selects a list box item.

In a file named colormapApp.m, write a function that implements the app:

  • Create a UI figure and a grid layout manager to lay out the app.

  • Create a list box and UI axes with some plotted data in the grid layout manager.

  • Write a callback function named listBoxValueChanged that updates the colormap for the UI axes, and assign the function to the ValueChangedFcn callback property of the list box. For more information about callbacks, see Create Callbacks for Apps Created Programmatically.

function colormapApp
fig = uifigure;
g = uigridlayout(fig,[3 2]);
g.RowHeight = {'1x','fit','1x'};
g.ColumnWidth = {'fit','1x'};

lb = uilistbox(g, ...
    "Items",["Spring","Summer","Autumn","Winter"], ...
    "ItemsData",{spring,summer,autumn,winter});
lb.Layout.Row = 2;
lb.Layout.Column = 1;
ax = uiaxes(g);
ax.Layout.Row = [1 3];
ax.Layout.Column = 2;
surf(ax,peaks)
colormap(ax,spring)

lb.ValueChangedFcn = @(src,event) listBoxValueChanged(src,event,ax);
end

function listBoxValueChanged(src,event,ax)
cmap = event.Value;
colormap(ax,cmap)
end

Run the colormapApp function. Select an item in the list box to change the colormap.

colormapApp

Figure contains an axes object and an object of type uigridlayout. The axes object contains an object of type surface.

Since R2023a

Create a list box with three items that represent different images.

fig = uifigure;
lb = uilistbox(fig,"Items",["Peppers","Nebula","Street"]);

Create three styles with icons that correspond to the list box items.

s1 = uistyle("Icon","peppers.png");
s2 = uistyle("Icon","ngc6543a.jpg");
s3 = uistyle("Icon","street1.jpg");

Add the styles to the list box items to display the icons.

addStyle(lb,s1,"item",1);
addStyle(lb,s2,"item",2);
addStyle(lb,s3,"item",3);

List box UI component with three items. Each item has an icon to its left and text that describes the icon.

Input Arguments

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Parent container, specified as a Figure object created using the uifigure function or one of its child containers: Tab, Panel, ButtonGroup, or GridLayout. If you do not specify a parent container, MATLAB calls the uifigure function to create a new Figure object that serves as the parent container.

Name-Value Arguments

Specify optional pairs of arguments as Name1=Value1,...,NameN=ValueN, where Name is the argument name and Value is the corresponding value. Name-value arguments must appear after other arguments, but the order of the pairs does not matter.

Example: uilistbox(Items=["Model 1","Model 2","Model 3"]) specifies the list box items.

Before R2021a, use commas to separate each name and value, and enclose Name in quotes.

Example: uilistbox("Items",["Model 1","Model 2","Model 3"]) specifies the list box items.

Note

The properties listed here are a subset of the available properties. For the full list, see ListBox.

Value, specified as an element of the Items array, ItemsData array, or an empty cell array. By default, Value is the first element in Items.

To specify no selection, set Value to an empty cell array.

Specifying Value as an element of Items selects the list item that matches that element. If ItemsData is not empty, then Value must be set to an element of ItemsData, and the list box will select the associated item in the list.

List box items, specified as a cell array of character vectors, string array, or 1-D categorical array. Duplicate elements are allowed. The list box displays as many options as there are elements in the Items array. If you specify this property as a categorical array, MATLAB uses the values in the array, not the full set of categories.

Data associated with each element of the Items property value, specified as a 1-by-n numeric array or a 1-by-n cell array. Duplicate elements are allowed.

For example, if you set the Items value to employee names, you might set the ItemsData value to corresponding employee ID numbers. The ItemsData value is not visible to the app user.

If the number of array elements in the ItemsData value and the Items value do not match, one of the following occurs:

  • When the ItemsData value is empty, then all the elements of the Items value are presented to the app user.

  • When the ItemsData value has more elements than the Items value, then all the elements of the Items value are presented to the app user. MATLAB ignores the extra ItemsData elements.

  • When the ItemsData value is not empty, but has fewer elements than the Items value, the only elements of the Items value presented to the app user are those that have a corresponding element in the ItemsData value.

Example: {'One','Two','Three'}

Example: [10 20 30 40]

Multiple item selection, 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 allow users to select multiple items simultaneously.

Value changed callback, specified as one of these values:

  • A function handle.

  • A cell array in which the first element is a function handle. Subsequent elements in the cell array are the arguments to pass to the callback function.

  • A character vector containing a valid MATLAB expression (not recommended). MATLAB evaluates this expression in the base workspace.

This callback function executes when the user selects a different item in the list box. It does not execute if the Value property setting changes programmatically.

This callback function can access specific information about the user’s interaction with the list box. 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 list box. The ValueChangedData object is not available to callback functions specified as character vectors.

The following table lists the properties of the ValueChangedData object.

PropertyValue
ValueValue of list box after the app user’s most recent interaction
PreviousValueValue of list box before the app user’s most recent interaction
ValueIndexIndex of list box value in items after the app user’s most recent interaction
PreviousValueIndexIndex of list box value in items before the app user’s most recent interaction
SourceComponent that executes the callback
EventName'ValueChanged'

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

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

ElementDescription
leftDistance from the inner left edge of the parent container to the outer left edge of the list box
bottomDistance from the inner bottom edge of the parent container to the outer bottom edge of the list box
widthDistance between the right and left outer edges of the list box
heightDistance between the top and bottom outer edges of the list box

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: [100 100 100 200]

Tips

Use the scroll function to programmatically scroll a list box item or the top or bottom of the list into view.

Version History

Introduced in R2016a

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See Also

Functions

Properties

Tools