Custom GINPUT

GINPUT with customizable cursor.

Description

This function behaves similarly to MATLAB's GINPUT, with an added ability to customize the cursor color, line width, and line style. From the function HELP:

[X,Y] = ginputc(N) gets N points from the current axes and returns the X- and Y-coordinates in length N vectors X and Y. The cursor can be positioned using a mouse. Data points are entered by pressing a mouse button or any key on the keyboard except carriage return, which terminates the input before N points are entered. Note: if there are multiple axes in the figure, use mouse clicks instead of key presses. Key presses may not select the axes where the cursor is.

[X,Y] = ginputc gathers an unlimited number of points until the return key is pressed.

[X,Y] = ginputc(N, PARAM, VALUE) and [X,Y] = ginputc(PARAM, VALUE) specifies additional parameters for customizing. Valid values for PARAM are:
'Color' : A three-element RGB vector, or one of the MATLAB predefined names, specifying the line color. See the ColorSpec reference page for more information on specifying color. Default is 'k' (black).
'LineWidth' : A scalar number specifying the line width. Default is 0.5.
'LineStyle' : '-', '--', '-.', ':'. Default is '-'.
'ShowPoints' : TRUE or FALSE specifying whether to show the points being selected. Default is false.
'ConnectPoints' : TRUE or FALSE specifying whether to connect the points as they are being selected. This only applies when 'ShowPoints' is set to TRUE. Default is true.

[X,Y,BUTTON] = ginputc(...) returns a third result, BUTTON, that contains a vector of integers specifying which mouse button was used (1,2,3 from left) or ASCII numbers if a key on the keyboard was used.

[X,Y,BUTTON,AX] = ginputc(...) returns a fourth result, AX, that contains a vector of axes handles for the data points collected.

Examples:
 [x, y] = ginputc;

 [x, y] = ginputc(5, 'Color', 'r', 'LineWidth', 3);

 [x, y, button] = ginputc(1, 'LineStyle', ':');

 subplot(1, 2, 1); subplot(1, 2, 2);
 [x, y, button, ax] = ginputc;

 [x, y] = ginputc('ShowPoints', true, 'ConnectPoints', true);

• Required Products: MATLAB
• MATLAB release: MATLAB 8.0 (R2012b)
• Other requirements: Requires R2007b or newer.

[Wolfgang Schwanghart]

Jiro, thanks for the quick reply and fix!

[Anon]

Thanks!

[Jiro Doke]

@Wolfgang,

Thanks for pointing this out. It was a bug. I'll fix it and resubmit. In the meantime, please replace the following lines in my code:

addParamValue(p, 'LineStyle', '-' , @(x) validatestring(x, ...
{'-', '--', '-.', ':'}));

to:

addParamValue(p, 'LineStyle', '-' , @(x) ischar(validatestring(x, ...
{'-', '--', '-.', ':'})));

[Wolfgang Schwanghart]

Great tool! Yet, there seems to be a bug which I cannot resolve. I called ginputc with

[x,y,button] = ginputc(1,'color','r','LineStyle','--')

in a function mytool. Despite the LineStyle should be valid, I receive following error message.

Error using mytool>ginputc (line 135)
Argument 'LineStyle' failed validation @(x)validatestring(x,{'-','--','-.',':'}).
Error in mytool (line 29)
[x,y,button] = ginputc(1,'color','r','LineStyle','--');

Any ideas?

[Jiro Doke]

@Stefano,

Can you elaborate a little bit more? Are you saying that you want to pass a "list" of x-y coordinates, so that the additional points you click will be appended to the list? Or are you saying that you want to pass a pair of x-y coordinates and the cursor to be initially placed at that coordinate?

[Stefano]

one thing: it would be nice to call the function with already a list of [x,y] coordinates. I'm trying to implement it, but it doesn't work properly yet...

[Stefano]

Great function. Exact what I needed.
And with a clear code too :)