Check if figure tab exists

Hi @MH,

To work around this limitation and effectively manage tabs in a MATLAB GUI, I can leverage the findobj function to search for existing tab objects based on their titles. However, going through documentation, it seems that findobj does not support substring matching directly. So, instead, I can utilize the contains function as you suggest in conjunction with a loop to achieve the desired functionality. Below, I will provide a detailed explanation and a refined code implementation that addresses the concerns raised. So, I started creating a figure and a tab group where the tabs will reside. For demonstration purposes, I will simulate the import of datasets. In a real application, this would involve loading your actual data. Instead of using findobj directly to find a tab by title, I will iterate through the existing tabs and use the contains function to check if any tab title includes the specified substring. If a matching tab is found, I will select it; if not, I will create a new tab and plot the corresponding data. Here is a refined version of the code that incorporates the above logic:

% Example Setup
figureHandle = figure('Name', 'Control');
tabGroup = uitabgroup(figureHandle);

% Simulated data import loop (for demonstration)
dataSets = {'Thermo1_Cond1', 'Thermo2_Cond2', 'Thermo3_Cond3'};

for i = 1:length(dataSets)
  % Extract substring (e.g., 'Thermo1')
  subStr = 'Thermo1'; % This can be parameterized as needed

    % Initialize a flag to check if the tab exists
    tabExists = false;

    % Check for existing tabs using contains
    for j = 1:length(tabGroup.Children)
        if contains(tabGroup.Children(j).Title, subStr)
            existingTab = tabGroup.Children(j);
            tabExists = true;
            break; % Exit loop if tab is found
        end
      end

     if ~tabExists
        % If it doesn't exist, create a new tab
        newTab = uitab(tabGroup, 'Title', dataSets{i});
        % Here you would add your plotting code for the new data
        % Example: plot(newTab, ...);
        disp(['Created new tab: ', dataSets{i}]);
     else
        % If it exists, select the existing tab
        tabGroup.SelectedTab = existingTab;
        % Load new data and plot
        % Example: plot(existingTab, ...);
        disp(['Loaded data into existing tab: ', 
        existingTab.Title]);
     end
  end

Please see attached.

For more information on ui tab group function, please refer to

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/uitabgroup.html?searchHighlight=uitabgroup&s_tid=srchtitle_support_results_1_uitabgroup

So, if you glance through the code, it begins by creating a figure and a tab group to hold the tabs. The dataSets array simulates the datasets that would typically be imported and a loop iterates through the existing tabs in the tabGroup. The contains function checks if the title of any tab includes the specified substring (subStr). If a match is found, the corresponding tab is stored in existingTab, and a flag (tabExists) is set to true. Depending on whether a matching tab was found, the code either creates a new tab or selects the existing one. The appropriate plotting code can be added where indicated. Hope this should help resolve your problem now.