App Designer ListBox.Value working strangely?

Hi all!

I encountered the following problem: I tried to import file names from 2 different folders to 2 listboxes. Until this the code works. But then I tried to add the selected items from the respective lists to another 2 lists. So until this the code should be totally the same.

But in one version the ListBox.Value is a string and in the other is a cell array, and I haven't been able to find the cause.

Does anybody have an explanation for this phenomenon or it is just a bug?

The code:

if true
  % code
end
searchpath = (['\\xxx\yyy\zzz\' app.TabSelect]) 
listmeasdata = dir(searchpath)
         dirFlags = [listmeasdata.isdir]
         files = {listmeasdata(~dirFlags).name}

 if app.TabGroup.SelectedTab == app.xTab
                 app.xListListBox.Items = files

             else app.TabGroup.SelectedTab == app.yTab
                 app.yListListBox.Items = files
end

 function TabGroupSelectionChanged(app, event)
             if app.TabGroup.SelectedTab == app.xTab
                 app.TabSelect = 'x'
             end
             if app.TabGroup.SelectedTab == app.yTab
                 app.TabSelect = 'y'

% Button pushed function: xAddtoselectionButton
      function xAddtoselectionButtonPushed(app, event)
          lastelement = numel(app.xSelectedListBox.Items)
          app.xSelectedListBox.Items(lastelement+1) = {app.xListListBox.Value}

 % Button pushed function: yAddtoselectionButton
        function yAddtoselectionButtonPushed(app, event)
            lastelement = numel(app.ySelectedListBox.Items)
            app.ySelectedListBox.Items(lastelement+1) = app.yListListBox.Value

You can see my problem in the first and fifth row from the bottom. Neither

• app.xSelectedListBox.Items(lastelement+1) = app.xListListBox.Valueor
• app.ySelectedListBox.Items(lastelement+1) = {app.yListListBox.Value}works

Answer 1

[Cris LaPierre]

The second case should work.

app.ySelectedListBox.Items(lastelement+1) = {app.yListListBox.Value}

To test, I made a simple app with 4 listboxes and 2 buttons. Button2 selects the files and adds them to all listboxes. Button3 adds the selected items from box 1 and 2 and adds them to the bottoms of boxes 3 and 4. It worked.

% Button pushed function: Button2
function Button2Pushed(app, event)
   files = uigetfile('MultiSelect','on');
   app.ListBox.Items = files;
   app.ListBox2.Items = files;
   app.ListBox3.Items = files;
   app.ListBox4.Items = files;
end

% Button pushed function: Button3
function Button3Pushed(app, event)
   l = numel(app.ListBox3.Items)
   app.ListBox3.Items(l+1) = {app.ListBox.Value};
   app.ListBox4.Items(l+1) = {app.ListBox2.Value};
end

One thing to be aware of in this simplified example. You must select at least 2 files since uigetfile returns a char array if one file is selected and a cell array if more than one are selected.

[Cris LaPierre]

Because I'm bored, I implemented your code. Same object names, etc. It works for me if I add curly braces to the assignment in the last line of your code

app.ySelectedListBox.Items(lastelement+1) = {app.yListListBox.Value}

One comment - I would make the if-else-end statement an if-elseif-end. That, or remove the logical test statement.

if app.TabGroup.SelectedTab == app.xTab
  ...
else
  ...
end

or

if app.TabGroup.SelectedTab == app.xTab
  ...
elseif app.TabGroup.SelectedTab == app.yTab
  ...
end

[Sahjtli]

Hi Cris LaPierre!

Thank you very much for your answer!

The problem was that one listbox allowed multiselect and the other didn't, and I wasn't aware that this setting can return different datatypes. (Somehow for me the multiselect only allows to select one entry only, so I couldn't notice the difference).

As for the if cycles, thank you for the feedback I changed it to if/ifelse combination, but I'm sure than many more mistakes like this are in the code, as I'm a beginner in Matlab and not even an expert programmer in other languages. :D

[Cris LaPierre]

Keep playing around! If you need any help learning MATLAB, consider going through MATLAB Onramp. It is designed to help brand new users get familiar with MATLAB syntax.

For multiselect, the user would ctrl+click on items in the list to select multiple items. The assignment would have to be made differently, however (you'd have to know how many items are being added, and adjust the assignment indexing accordingly). I would consider it simpler and more robust to do the following (using your nomenclature):

% Button pushed function: xAddtoselectionButton
function xAddtoselectionButtonPushed(app, event)
    app.xSelectedListBox.Items = [app.xSelectedListBox.Items app.xListListBox.Value];
end

This replaces all the items in the listbox each time, but works if a single item is selected or multiple items. So the same code would work whether multiselection is allowed or not.