CheckboxList

24 Responses

1. 
   Etienne September 18, 2014 at 01:13 Reply

   In your Mathworks CheckBoxList example the ‘ValueChangedCallback’ listens for changes in the selected listbox items (e.g. first or third). Which callback would you use to listen for check/uncheck property changes? These selection are not registered with the ‘ValueChangedCallback’…

• 
  Yair Altman September 18, 2014 at 03:22 Reply

  You need to set the ValueChangedCallback of the control’s data (check) model, not of the control:

  jhCBModel = handle(jCBList.getCheckModel, 'CallbackProperties'); set(jhCBModel, 'ValueChangedCallback', @myMatlabCallbackFcn);

  jhCBModel = handle(jCBList.getCheckModel, 'CallbackProperties'); set(jhCBModel, 'ValueChangedCallback', @myMatlabCallbackFcn);

  It makes sense if you think about it: listbox values determine which items are selected; check-model values determine which items are checked. It’s not the same thing – listbox items can be checked/unchecked independently of whether or not they are selected.

2. Customizing listbox/combobox items | Undocumented Matlab September 18, 2014 at 01:48 Reply

   […] Customizing listbox/combobox items […]

3. 
   sebastian September 19, 2014 at 07:26 Reply

   FWIW:

   Another possibility is to use an uitable, with its first column displaying the checkboxes (with logical column format) and the second column showing the non-editable list items.
   Switching off row and column headers, as well as row-striping this looks pretty much just like a list view.

• 
  Yair Altman September 19, 2014 at 08:30 Reply

  Thanks for the comment Sebastian. It is a logical extension of the ActiveX idea, but you are of course correct that it should be made explicit, since using a uitable is a better solution (portability, performance, stability, maintainability) than the ActiveX control. I’ve updated the article with the uitable variant. Thanks again!

• 
  Sebastian November 13, 2014 at 07:32

  Hi Yair,

  thanks for this. What if I want to add/remove/update the java list items after creating the object?

  Cheers,
  Sebatian

• 
  Yair Altman November 13, 2014 at 08:00

  @Sebastian – I’m not sure to which of the Java objects you refer exactly. In any case you can use one of the built-in functions methods or methodsview, or my uiinspect or checkClass utilities, to see which methods (functions) are exposed (supported) by the Java objects. If you need specific examples search my blog or Matlab-Java book. If you need specific advise, you can contact me by email for a short consulting.

4. 
   Sebastian November 13, 2014 at 08:24 Reply

   Yair,

   thanks for your reply. I’ve tried with your fanstastic uiinspect() function but I was not able to find anything interesting. What I mean is, imagine you have the following code:

   % First create the data model jList = java.util.ArrayList; % any java.util.List will be ok jList.add(0,'First'); jList.add(1,'Second'); jList.add(2,'Third'); jList.add(3,'and last');   % Next prepare a CheckBoxList component within a scroll-pane jCBList = com.mathworks.mwswing.checkboxlist.CheckBoxList(jList); jScrollPane = com.mathworks.mwswing.MJScrollPane(jCBList);   % Now place this scroll-pane within a Matlab container (figure or panel) [jhScroll,hContainer] = javacomponent(jScrollPane,[10,10,80,65],gcf);

   % First create the data model jList = java.util.ArrayList; % any java.util.List will be ok jList.add(0,'First'); jList.add(1,'Second'); jList.add(2,'Third'); jList.add(3,'and last'); % Next prepare a CheckBoxList component within a scroll-pane jCBList = com.mathworks.mwswing.checkboxlist.CheckBoxList(jList); jScrollPane = com.mathworks.mwswing.MJScrollPane(jCBList); % Now place this scroll-pane within a Matlab container (figure or panel) [jhScroll,hContainer] = javacomponent(jScrollPane,[10,10,80,65],gcf);

   which is actually your example. Now imagine you need to add/remove/rename one of the checkboxlist items. I would imagine I should find a method which ‘updates’ the jCBList or something similar…obviously I don’t want to remove the jScrollPane and create a new one with a new jList.
   Does my question make any sense?

   Cheers,

   Sebastian

• 
  Nadav December 6, 2014 at 23:16 Reply

  this is interesting – is there a way to update the entries in the list?

• 
  Miloslav September 5, 2017 at 15:01 Reply

  I’m also interested in modifying list elements.
  I’m using R2016b on Windows (x64).

  I could modify the existing elements like:

  cbmodel = javax.swing.DefaultListModel; cbmodel.addElement('Test A'); %any of the following two will work cbmodel.insertElementAt('Test B', 1);   jCBList = com.mathworks.mwswing.checkboxlist.CheckBoxList(cbmodel); jScrollPane2 = com.mathworks.mwswing.MJScrollPane(jCBList);   %draw it [jhScroll,hContainer] = javacomponent(jScrollPane2,[0,0,200,200],gcf); set(hContainer,'units','norm', 'tag','modelList'); %set 'tag' to find it later   %to modify the existing elements oList = findobj('Tag','nameList'); %return JavaWrapper zz = oList.JavaPeer; %return MJScroollPane zzz = zz.getViewport().getView(); % return CheckBoxList list = zzz.getModel(); % return DefaultListModel % or directly %list = oList.JavaPeer.getViewport().getView().getModel();   list.clear(); % clear the list methods(list); % will print you this methods %DefaultListModel equals isEmpty set %add firstElement lastElement setElementAt %addElement get lastIndexOf setSize %addListDataListener getClass notify size %capacity getElementAt notifyAll toArray %clear getListDataListeners remove toString %contains getListeners removeAllElements trimToSize %copyInto getSize removeElement wait %elementAt hashCode removeElementAt %elements indexOf removeListDataListener %ensureCapacity insertElementAt removeRange   list.addElement('TEST'); list.addElement('Element 2'); list.setElementAt('replaced previous TEST',0); list.insertElementAt('TEST 2',1); % this will allow you really add more elements to the list without exception "IndexOutOfBoundsException"   %OR %now you can manipulate the list elements by replacing the model with the new one model = javax.swing.DefaultListModel; model.addElement('new TEST'); %it works if you add 1-3 elements %now, add new element to the list at certain position model.insertElementAt('blabla', 1); % second argument is index, start with 0   zzz.setModel(model); % and replace old model with new one in the CheckBoxList

  cbmodel = javax.swing.DefaultListModel; cbmodel.addElement('Test A'); %any of the following two will work cbmodel.insertElementAt('Test B', 1); jCBList = com.mathworks.mwswing.checkboxlist.CheckBoxList(cbmodel); jScrollPane2 = com.mathworks.mwswing.MJScrollPane(jCBList); %draw it [jhScroll,hContainer] = javacomponent(jScrollPane2,[0,0,200,200],gcf); set(hContainer,'units','norm', 'tag','modelList'); %set 'tag' to find it later %to modify the existing elements oList = findobj('Tag','nameList'); %return JavaWrapper zz = oList.JavaPeer; %return MJScroollPane zzz = zz.getViewport().getView(); % return CheckBoxList list = zzz.getModel(); % return DefaultListModel % or directly %list = oList.JavaPeer.getViewport().getView().getModel(); list.clear(); % clear the list methods(list); % will print you this methods %DefaultListModel equals isEmpty set %add firstElement lastElement setElementAt %addElement get lastIndexOf setSize %addListDataListener getClass notify size %capacity getElementAt notifyAll toArray %clear getListDataListeners remove toString %contains getListeners removeAllElements trimToSize %copyInto getSize removeElement wait %elementAt hashCode removeElementAt %elements indexOf removeListDataListener %ensureCapacity insertElementAt removeRange list.addElement('TEST'); list.addElement('Element 2'); list.setElementAt('replaced previous TEST',0); list.insertElementAt('TEST 2',1); % this will allow you really add more elements to the list without exception "IndexOutOfBoundsException" %OR %now you can manipulate the list elements by replacing the model with the new one model = javax.swing.DefaultListModel; model.addElement('new TEST'); %it works if you add 1-3 elements %now, add new element to the list at certain position model.insertElementAt('blabla', 1); % second argument is index, start with 0 zzz.setModel(model); % and replace old model with new one in the CheckBoxList

  If you add mode elements (using addElement method) than the original list had you will get :
  “Exception in thread “AWT-EventQueue-0″ java.lang.IndexOutOfBoundsException: Index: 1, Size: 1”

5. 
   Nadav November 30, 2014 at 23:03 Reply

   Hi Yair,
   Can you please comment on whether or not the MathWorks CheckBoxList will compile into an executable?

   Thanks,
   Nadav

• 
  Yair Altman November 30, 2014 at 23:41 Reply

  @Nadav – yes it should, it is part of the MCR.

6. 
   Loops September 2, 2015 at 15:18 Reply

   Hello Yair

   Nice example!!

   When I add the JScrollPane into a matlab panel, I want set its Units normalized and fill the matlab panel.
   But its Origin Position exceeds the matlab panel and doesn’t fit in the matlab panel precisely.
   How do I fix it?

   hf = figure; hpanel = uipanel('Parent', hf); [jhScroll, hContainer] = javacomponent(jScrollPane, [2 2 60 80], hpanel); set(hContainer, 'Units','normalized', 'Position', [0 0 1 1]);

   hf = figure; hpanel = uipanel('Parent', hf); [jhScroll, hContainer] = javacomponent(jScrollPane, [2 2 60 80], hpanel); set(hContainer, 'Units','normalized', 'Position', [0 0 1 1]);

• 
  Yair Altman September 3, 2015 at 07:45 Reply

  @Loops – Your code seems to work well for me. I do not understand your problem, nor what you mean by “Origin Position”.

• 
  Loops September 9, 2015 at 16:38 Reply

  hf = figure; hpanel = uipanel('Parent', hf); uicontrol('Parent', hpanel, 'Style', 'listbox','Units', 'normalized','Position',[0,0,1,1],'Background','white');

  hf = figure; hpanel = uipanel('Parent', hf); uicontrol('Parent', hpanel, 'Style', 'listbox','Units', 'normalized','Position',[0,0,1,1],'Background','white');

  Here is the result I builted.
  You could see there are “a little” differences between Java component and Matlab component.
  The red and green circle are what I mean the “Origin Position”.
  https://www.dropbox.com/s/kgvgd0hxcasovhm/Shift.png?dl=0
  

• 
  Yair Altman September 10, 2015 at 03:02

  @Loops – this is because of your uipanel (hpanel). Instead, place your javacomponent directly within the figure, rather than a uipanel:

  [jhScroll, hContainer] = javacomponent(jScrollPane, [2 2 60 80], hf);

  [jhScroll, hContainer] = javacomponent(jScrollPane, [2 2 60 80], hf);

  Alternatively, set your parent uipanel to have no border line:

  hpanel = uipanel('Parent', hf, 'BorderType', 'none');

  hpanel = uipanel('Parent', hf, 'BorderType', 'none');

7. 
   Xiangrui Li December 30, 2015 at 15:15 Reply

   I was searching for checkbox list solution, and found this thread. Thanks Yair for providing different solutions! After playing with the options, here is my two cents.

   (1) The MathWorks CheckBoxList looks nice, but as already asked here, I did not find a solution to add/remove an item. So it is not ideal for my purpose.
   (2) I did not try ActiveX method, since I want a system independent solution.
   (3) The Matlab uitable method is very easy to use. I was trying to use it until I realize that there is no programmatic way to set the selected item. Another minor issue is that it seems there is no way to set alignment to left in case that the content exceeds the defined width.

   So I ended up the Matlab listbox method. I am sharing what I did with the listbox method, in case it is useful to others. It is almost the same as the the first method Yair described, but no java and image are used. Instead, I use two special characters for check and uncheck marks.

   feature('DefaultCharacterSet', 'UTF-8'); % needed for old matlab checked = 9746; % square with X inside unchecked = 9744; % empty square h = uicontrol('Style', 'list', 'Position', [10 10 100 80], 'Callback', @select_cb, ... 'FontSize', 10, ... % affect the check mark coordinate detection 'String', {[checked ' First'] [unchecked ' Second'] [checked ' Third'] [unchecked ' and last']});   function select_cb(h, ~) i = get(h, 'Value'); x = get(0, 'PointerLocation'); % figure CurrentPoint is not reliable pos = get(gcf, 'Position') + get(h, 'Position'); x = x(1) - pos(1); % x coordinate of mouse click if x>2 && x<12 % related to FontSize, and maybe FontName str = get(h, 'String'); if str{i}(1) == 9746 % was checked str{i}(1) = 9744; fprintf('Item %g unchecked and selected.n', i); else str{i}(1) = 9746; fprintf('Item %g checked and selected.n', i); end set(h, 'String', str); else fprintf('Item %g selected.n', i); end

   feature('DefaultCharacterSet', 'UTF-8'); % needed for old matlab checked = 9746; % square with X inside unchecked = 9744; % empty square h = uicontrol('Style', 'list', 'Position', [10 10 100 80], 'Callback', @select_cb, ... 'FontSize', 10, ... % affect the check mark coordinate detection 'String', {[checked ' First'] [unchecked ' Second'] [checked ' Third'] [unchecked ' and last']}); function select_cb(h, ~) i = get(h, 'Value'); x = get(0, 'PointerLocation'); % figure CurrentPoint is not reliable pos = get(gcf, 'Position') + get(h, 'Position'); x = x(1) - pos(1); % x coordinate of mouse click if x>2 && x<12 % related to FontSize, and maybe FontName str = get(h, 'String'); if str{i}(1) == 9746 % was checked str{i}(1) = 9744; fprintf('Item %g unchecked and selected.n', i); else str{i}(1) = 9746; fprintf('Item %g checked and selected.n', i); end set(h, 'String', str); else fprintf('Item %g selected.n', i); end

8. 
   Xiangrui Li June 21, 2016 at 03:45 Reply

   Following Yair’s nice information, I played with JIDE checkbox list, and figured out the way to add/remove checkbox list dynamically for my purpose. Compared to my previous post using two special characters as checked and unchecked boxes, JIDE CheckBoxList contains true checkbox, so there is no need to compute the list item by mouse click location, which depends on font size.

   Another feature which fits my need very well is that JIDE CheckBoxList can be ClickInCheckBoxOnly, which separates check event and selection event. This is different from mathworks CheckBoxList where mouse selection always does check/uncheck, but much like uitable, while uitable has no programmatic way to select an item.

   Here is some sample code:

   % set up model jCBList = com.jidesoft.swing.CheckBoxList; jCBList.setModel(javax.swing.DefaultListModel); % dynamic items % jCBList.ClickInCheckBoxOnly = true; % it's default jCBList.setSelectionMode(0); % I need single selection   % Now display onscreen: jScrollPane = com.mathworks.mwswing.MJScrollPane(jCBList); javacomponent(jScrollPane, [10,40,80,80], gcf);   % add some items and set check/selecttion jCBList.getModel.addElement('First'); % add item to end jCBList.getModel.addElement('Third'); % add item to end jCBList.getModel.insertElementAt('Second', 1); % insert item as 2nd item % jCBList.getModel.removeElementAt(1); % remove 2nd item jCBList.addCheckBoxListSelectedIndex(2); % check 3rd item jCBList.setSelectedIndex(1); % select 2nd item (highlight)   % set up callback h = handle(jCBList, 'CallbackProperties'); set(h, 'MouseClickedCallback', @mouseFcn);   % callback function mouseFcn(h, ~) fprintf('Item %g selectedn', h.getSelectedIndex+1); fprintf('Item(s) '); fprintf('%g ', h.getCheckBoxListSelectedIndices+1); fprintf('checkedn'); end

   % set up model jCBList = com.jidesoft.swing.CheckBoxList; jCBList.setModel(javax.swing.DefaultListModel); % dynamic items % jCBList.ClickInCheckBoxOnly = true; % it's default jCBList.setSelectionMode(0); % I need single selection % Now display onscreen: jScrollPane = com.mathworks.mwswing.MJScrollPane(jCBList); javacomponent(jScrollPane, [10,40,80,80], gcf); % add some items and set check/selecttion jCBList.getModel.addElement('First'); % add item to end jCBList.getModel.addElement('Third'); % add item to end jCBList.getModel.insertElementAt('Second', 1); % insert item as 2nd item % jCBList.getModel.removeElementAt(1); % remove 2nd item jCBList.addCheckBoxListSelectedIndex(2); % check 3rd item jCBList.setSelectedIndex(1); % select 2nd item (highlight) % set up callback h = handle(jCBList, 'CallbackProperties'); set(h, 'MouseClickedCallback', @mouseFcn); % callback function mouseFcn(h, ~) fprintf('Item %g selectedn', h.getSelectedIndex+1); fprintf('Item(s) '); fprintf('%g ', h.getCheckBoxListSelectedIndices+1); fprintf('checkedn'); end

9. 
   Fabrizio May 3, 2017 at 12:39 Reply

   Hi Yair and many compliments for your post.
   I’m a beginner with Java in Matlab and I’ve a simple question to ask.
   After a selection, I wish to disable the panel containing the Mathworks checkboxlist.

   I noticed that

   set(findall(hpanel, '-property', 'enable'), 'enable', 'off')

   set(findall(hpanel, '-property', 'enable'), 'enable', 'off')

   doesn’t work.

   Furthermore

   jhScroll.setEnable(0)

   jhScroll.setEnable(0)

   doen’t produce any effects on the java component.
   On the contrary jhScroll.setVisible works as the name suggests.

   Where do I fail? Is it a known issue?
   Thanks in advance for your reply.

• 
  Yair Altman December 3, 2017 at 13:59 Reply

  @Fabrizio –

  jCBList.setEnabled(false) % or: jCBList.setEnabled(0)

  jCBList.setEnabled(false) % or: jCBList.setEnabled(0)

10. 
    JoeB December 19, 2017 at 18:14 Reply

    Hi Yair, Thanks for this. When I try the following code in ML 2017a, I get a list that returns IsEnabled as false but still allows the user to change the checkbox values and does not appear greyed out. Any idea what I’m missing? Thanks:

    % First create the data model jList = java.util.ArrayList; % any java.util.List will be ok jList.add(0,'First'); jList.add(1,'Second'); jList.add(2,'Third'); jList.add(3,'and last');   % Next prepare a CheckBoxList component within a scroll-pane jCBList = com.mathworks.mwswing.checkboxlist.CheckBoxList(jList); jScrollPane = com.mathworks.mwswing.MJScrollPane(jCBList);   % Now place this scroll-pane within a Matlab container (figure or panel) [jhScroll,hContainer] = javacomponent(jScrollPane,[10,10,80,65],gcf);   jCBList.setEnabled(0)

    % First create the data model jList = java.util.ArrayList; % any java.util.List will be ok jList.add(0,'First'); jList.add(1,'Second'); jList.add(2,'Third'); jList.add(3,'and last'); % Next prepare a CheckBoxList component within a scroll-pane jCBList = com.mathworks.mwswing.checkboxlist.CheckBoxList(jList); jScrollPane = com.mathworks.mwswing.MJScrollPane(jCBList); % Now place this scroll-pane within a Matlab container (figure or panel) [jhScroll,hContainer] = javacomponent(jScrollPane,[10,10,80,65],gcf); jCBList.setEnabled(0)

• 
  Yair Altman January 11, 2018 at 13:49 Reply

  @JoeB – the Mathworks’ CheckBoxList has a bug with this: the list is indeed disabled in the sense that you cannot change the selected item(s), but it is not fully disabled in the sense that you can still check/uncheck the checkboxes, even if you try to do jCBList.getCellRenderer.setEnabled(0).

  Instead, you can use JIDE’s CheckBoxList, which does not have this bug.

11. 
    Arun Joe Joseph November 5, 2019 at 12:22 Reply

    Is it possible to use this Matlab CheckboxList along with GUIDE? I tried using this in a GUIDE app, and it seems that I cannot pass GUIDE arguments like handles structure to myMatlabCallbackFcn?

    Also In myMatlabCallbackFcn, how can I access the Checked Values, as in the names corresponding to the checked values? I tried using jCBList.getCheckedValues, but I am not able to access jCBList inside my callback function.

12. 
    Jianfei November 28, 2020 at 16:07 Reply

    I have tried the MathWorks CheckBoxList in Matlab 2015b. For whatever the reason, I can’t change the font properties. I can change the font color, but changing font properties like font family, font size, bold and italic will not take any effect.

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