guidata(hObject, handles) does not save my data

Hi,

In the following function i try to calculate the number of vectors in a rectangle. (result stored in handles.num)

In Debug-mode the number gets calculated correctly, but when it jumps out of the function, the generated data gets deleted form the workspace and the next function, that tries to access that data throws an error message.

I tried to update handles, but apparently it doesn`t work the way i think it would.

The function, that claclutates the number:

function calcHatch(hObject, eventdata, handles)
handles.num=0;
invert = false;
handles.N_hatches = floor((handles.size_y-handles.hatchO)/handles.hatchD); %abgerundete Anzahl der Hatchlinien
handles.hatches = (1:1:handles.N_hatches);                           %erste Zeile des Arrays mit den Nummern der Hatchreihen befüllen
for h = 1:(handles.N_hatches)
    handles.hatches(2, h) = handles.hatchO + handles.hatchD*(h-1);            %zweite Zeile des Arrays mit den Offsets der Hatchreihen befüllen
    handles.hatches(3, h) = 1;
    if (handles.hatches(2, h) >= handles.o_Pocket_1 & handles.hatches(2, h)<=(handles.o_Pocket_1+handles.s_Pocket_1))        %dritte Zeile mit Anzahl der Hatches der Hatchlinien füllen
        handles.hatches(3, h) = handles.hatches(3, h) + 1;
    end
    if (handles.hatches(2, h) >= handles.o_Pocket_2 & handles.hatches(2, h)<=(handles.o_Pocket_2+handles.s_Pocket_2))
        handles.hatches(3, h) = handles.hatches(3, h) + 1;
    end
    if (handles.hatches(2, h) >= handles.o_Pocket_3 & handles.hatches(2, h)<=(handles.o_Pocket_3+handles.s_Pocket_3))
        handles.hatches(3, h) = handles.hatches(3, h) + 1;
    end
    if (handles.hatches(2, h) >= handles.o_Pocket_4 & handles.hatches(2, h)<=(handles.o_Pocket_4+handles.s_Pocket_4))
        handles.hatches(3, h) = handles.hatches(3, h) + 1;
    end
    handles.num=handles.num + handles.hatches(3, h);
    handles.hatches (4, h) = invert;         %vierte Zeile mit der Information, ob Hatchlinie invertiert werden muss, befüllen
    invert = not(invert);
end
guidata(hObject,handles);

The function, that tries to accesss the data:

function  importFile(hObject, eventdata, handles)
[handles.filename, handles.pathname] = uigetfile('*', 'Select the txt-file');   %öffnen des Dateiverzeichnisses um Datei auszuwählen
FID = fopen(fullfile(handles.pathname,handles.filename),'r+');         %öffnen der ausgewählten Datei
h=textscan(FID,'%s',14);           %Abspeichern des Headers
handles.header=h{1}(:);
C = textscan(FID, '%s',(handles.num)*4+3,'delimiter',',');         %auslesen der Datei
handles.dat=C{1}(:);
s=textscan(FID,'%s');      %Abspeichern der Informationen nach den manipulierten Daten
handles.signature=s{1}(:);
guidata(hObject, handles);
fclose(FID);

The error-message:

Unrecognized field name "num".

Error in Hatchmanipulation>importFile (line 185)
C = textscan(FID, '%s',(handles.num)*4+3,'delimiter',',');         %auslesen der Datei

Error in Hatchmanipulation>pushbutton1_Callback (line 268)
importFile(hObject, eventdata, handles);

Error in gui_mainfcn (line 95)
        feval(varargin{:});

Error in Hatchmanipulation (line 42)
    gui_mainfcn(gui_State, varargin{:});

Error in
matlab.graphics.internal.figfile.FigFile/read>@(hObject,eventdata)Hatchmanipulation('pushbutton1_Callback',hObject,eventdata,guidata(hObject)) 
Error while evaluating UIControl Callback.

Maybe someone has an idea what i am doing wrong.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

[Jan]

How did you create the GUI? This does not look as GUIDE. How are the callbacks called? Directly as defined during the creation of the GUI objects? Then remember, that the handles struct is a copy of the struct as it existed during the creaion of the GUI:

function createGUI
handles.FigH = figure;
handles.data = [0, 0];
handles.Button1 = uicontrol('Style', 'pushbutton', ...
    'String', 'button 1', ...
    'Units', 'normalized', ...
    'Position', [0.1, 0.1, 0.35, 0.1], ...
    'Callback', {@Button1CB, handles});
handles.Button2 = uicontrol('Style', 'pushbutton', ...
    'String', 'button 2', ...
    'Units', 'normalized', ...
    'Position', [0.55, 0.1, 0.25, 0.1], ...
    'Callback', {@Button1CB, handles});
guidata(handles.FigH, handles);
end

function Button1CB(Button1, Event, handles)  % Get struct from function def
handles.data(1) = handles.data(1) + 1;
disp(handles.data);
guidata(Button1, handles);  % Modifies struct stored in figure
end

function Button2CB(Button1, Event, handles)  % Get struct from function def
handles.data(1) = handles.data(1) + 1;
disp(handles.data);
guidata(Button1, handles);  % Modifies struct stored in figure
end

Now there are 3 different copies of the handles struct. One with data=0 is stored in the inputs of Button1CB, one with data=1 in the inputs of Button2CB and the a 3rd one in the figure.

GUIDE solves this by replacing the 3rd input by a copy of the current hanbdles struct from the figure. This can be done manually also:

function createGUI
handles.FigH = figure;
handles.Button1 = uicontrol('Style', 'pushbutton', ...
    'String', 'button 1', ...
    'Units', 'normalized', ...
    'Position', [0.1, 0.1, 0.35, 0.1], ...
    'Callback', @Button1CB);   % Without providing handles
handles.Button2 = uicontrol('Style', 'pushbutton', ...
    'String', 'button 2', ...
    'Units', 'normalized', ...
    'Position', [0.55, 0.1, 0.25, 0.1], ...
    'Callback', @Button1CB);   % Without providing handles
handles.data = [0, 0];
guidata(handles.FigH, handles);
end

function Button1CB(Button1, Event)
handles = guidata(Button1);
handles.data(1) = handles.data(1) + 1;
disp(handles.data);
guidata(Button1, handles);
end

function Button2CB(Button1, Event)
handles = guidata(Button1);
handles.data(2) = handles.data(2) + 1;
disp(handles.data);
guidata(Button1, handles);
end

With this way, you have one copy of the handles struct only and it is stored in the figure.

[Lukas Nolle]

I used GUIDE to create the GUI. I didn't change the way the automatically generated callbacks are called. The user can input data via uitables, so i have changed the callbacks to store the data upon CellEdit.

I changed the function according to your second example and it worked.

The functions now is:

function calcHatch(hObject, eventdata)
handles=guidata(hObject);
handles.num=0;
invert = false;
handles.N_hatches = floor((handles.size_y-handles.hatchO)/handles.hatchD); %abgerundete Anzahl der Hatchlinien
handles.hatches = (1:1:handles.N_hatches);                           %erste Zeile des Arrays mit den Nummern der Hatchreihen befüllen
for h = 1:(handles.N_hatches)
    handles.hatches(2, h) = handles.hatchO + handles.hatchD*(h-1);            %zweite Zeile des Arrays mit den Offsets der Hatchreihen befüllen
    handles.hatches(3, h) = 1;

    if (handles.hatches(2, h) >= handles.o_Pocket_1 & handles.hatches(2, h)<=(handles.o_Pocket_1+handles.s_Pocket_1))        %dritte Zeile mit Anzahl der Hatches der Hatchlinien füllen
        handles.hatches(3, h) = handles.hatches(3, h) + 1;
    end
    if (handles.hatches(2, h) >= handles.o_Pocket_2 & handles.hatches(2, h)<=(handles.o_Pocket_2+handles.s_Pocket_2))
        handles.hatches(3, h) = handles.hatches(3, h) + 1;       
    end   
    if (handles.hatches(2, h) >= handles.o_Pocket_3 & handles.hatches(2, h)<=(handles.o_Pocket_3+handles.s_Pocket_3))
        handles.hatches(3, h) = handles.hatches(3, h) + 1;
    end    
    if (handles.hatches(2, h) >= handles.o_Pocket_4 & handles.hatches(2, h)<=(handles.o_Pocket_4+handles.s_Pocket_4))
        handles.hatches(3, h) = handles.hatches(3, h) + 1;
    end   
    handles.num=handles.num + handles.hatches(3, h);
    handles.hatches (4, h) = invert;         %vierte Zeile mit der Information, ob Hatchlinie invertiert werden muss, befüllen
    invert = not(invert);
end
guidata(hObject,handles);

Thank you very much.

Answer 2

[Image Analyst]

You may have created it in GUIDE but if you did you either overrode the default names for the control callbacks, which will have a _Callback at the end of the control name, eg.

function calcHatch_Callback(hObject, eventdata, handles)

but that can't be true unless you also deleted the handles input from the input argument list.

So that leaves us with that you wrote those functions yourself and for some reason give the unneeded input arguments of hObject, eventdata. So if you're writing custom functions in the m-file, you should do this:

function handles = calcHatch(handles)
% code

That way, the callback from your button or other control will pass in the value of handles, then your code can change it, like by adding a num field to it. Then it will return the changed handles structure and the callback function that called your custom function will update handles globally when your callback calls guidata(). So the callback would look like

function button1_Callback(hObject, eventdata, handles)
% Now, here, handles does NOT have a .num field.
handles = calcHatch(handles) % Add a new "num" field to handles structure.
% Now, here, handles has a .num field.
guidata(hObject,handles); % Update handles.

[Lukas Nolle]

You're right, i manually created those functions,

After following the advise of Jan my code is now working, so i will just leave it that way.

Thank you anyway. I will remeber your advise for future projects.