pauseButton

Allows user to pause MATLAB simulation.

Description

Displays a button which, if clicked, causes MATLAB to pause and ask for an expression to be entered. This expression is evaluated in the calling functions workspace, the result is displayed and then MATLAB continues running its script/simulation.

pauseButton should be called often from inside a loop in a simulation which the user may want to pause. After the first call, it takes almost zero processing time.

Useful if e.g. you are running a long simulation and suddenly decide you want to know how many five card poker hands are in a pack.

Click the pause button, enter nchoosek(52,5) at the command window prompt then press return. Matlab displays
ans =
     2598960
and continues the simulation.

example usage:

for ii=1:50000
   pauseButton;
   for jj=1:1000
     dummy=randn(100)*randn(100);
   end
end

Uses almost no processing time.

• MATLAB release: MATLAB 7 (R14)

[Tom Robertson]

 

[J Fav]

thanks, just what I needed.

[tunc ikikardes]

Does anyone knows though if there's a way to break pause command from uincontrol buttons. (one can break it by keystrokes that's clear)

[Malcolm Hudson]

 

[Malcolm Hudson]

Why not just use 'keyboard' instead of input and evalin? That way you can type as many commands as you like before restarting.

[Hongxiao Jin]

This could be the simplest way to control a loop of images showing, by pausing anywhere, and then check image value and so on:

figure
pause on;
set(gcf,'SelectionType','extend');

for i=1:10000 %your loop
    st=get(gcf,'SelectionType');
    if st(1)=='n'
        pause
    end
    set(gcf,'SelectionType','extend');
    
    %your own scripts, example
    imagesc(randn(100,100))
    drawnow
end