inputdlg - Create and open input dialog box

Syntax

Description

answer = inputdlg(prompt) creates a modal dialog box and returns user input for multiple prompts in the cell array. prompt is a cell array containing prompt strings.

Note   A modal dialog box prevents the user from interacting with other windows before responding. For more information, see WindowStyle in the MATLAB Figure Properties.

answer = inputdlg(prompt,dlg_title) dlg_title specifies a title for the dialog box.

answer = inputdlg(prompt,dlg_title,num_lines) num_lines specifies the number of lines for each user-entered value. num_lines can be a scalar, column vector, or matrix.

• If num_lines is a scalar, it applies to all prompts.

• If num_lines is a column vector, each element specifies the number of lines of input for a prompt.

• If num_lines is a matrix, it should be size m-by-2, where m is the number of prompts on the dialog box. Each row refers to a prompt. The first column specifies the number of lines of input for a prompt. The second column specifies the width of the field in characters.

answer = inputdlg(prompt,dlg_title,num_lines,defAns) defAns specifies the default value to display for each prompt. defAns must contain the same number of elements as prompt and all elements must be strings.

answer = inputdlg(prompt,dlg_title,num_lines,defAns,options) If options is the string 'on', the dialog is made resizable in the horizontal direction. If options is a structure, the fields shown in the following table are recognized:

Field	Description
Resize	Can be 'on' or 'off' (default). If 'on', the window is resizable horizontally.
WindowStyle	Can be either 'normal' or 'modal' (default).
Interpreter	Can be either 'none' (default) or 'tex'. If the value is 'tex', the prompt strings are rendered using LaTeX.

If the user clicks the Cancel button to close an inputdlg box, the dialog returns an empty cell array:

answer = 
     {}

Tips

inputdlg uses the uiwait function to suspend execution until the user responds.

The returned variable answer is a cell array containing strings, one string per text entry field, starting from the top of the dialog box.

To convert a member of the cell array to a number, use str2num. To do this, you can add the following code to the end of any of the examples below:

[val status] = str2num(answer{1});  % Use curly bracket for subscript
if ~status
    % Handle empty value returned for unsuccessful conversion
    % ...
end
% val is a scalar or matrix converted from the first input

Users can enter scalar or vector values into inputdlg fields; str2num converts space- and comma-delimited strings into row vectors, and semicolon-delimited strings into column vectors. For example, if answer{1} contains '1 2 3;4 -5 6+7i', the conversion produces:

val = str2num(answer{1})
val =
   1.0000     2.0000     3.0000
   4.0000    -5.0000     6.0000 + 7.0000i

Examples

Example 1

Create a dialog box to input an integer and colormap name. Allow one line for each value.

prompt = {'Enter matrix size:','Enter colormap name:'};
dlg_title = 'Input for peaks function';
num_lines = 1;
def = {'20','hsv'};
answer = inputdlg(prompt,dlg_title,num_lines,def);

Example 2

Create a dialog box using the default options. Then use the options to make it resizable and not modal, and to interpret the text using LaTeX.

prompt={'Enter the matrix size for x^2:',...
        'Enter the colormap name:'};
name='Input for Peaks function';
numlines=1;
defaultanswer={'20','hsv'};
answer=inputdlg(prompt,name,numlines,defaultanswer);

options.Resize='on';
options.WindowStyle='normal';
options.Interpreter='tex';

answer=inputdlg(prompt,name,numlines,defaultanswer,options);

See Also

dialog | errordlg | figure | helpdlg | input | listdlg | msgbox | questdlg | str2num | uiresume | uiwait | warndlg

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