uistack

Reorder visual stacking of UI components

Use this function only with GUIDE, or with apps created using the figure function.

Syntax

uistack(comp)

uistack(comp,moveto)

uistack(comp,moveto,step)

Description

uistack(comp) shifts the specified component up one level within the front-to-back visual stacking order of UI components. If comp is specified as a vector of UI components, each component in the vector gets shifted up by one.

uistack(comp,moveto) moves the UI component to another position in the stack. For example, uistack(f,'top') moves component f to the top of the current stack.

uistack(comp,moveto,step) specifies the number of levels to move the UI component up or down. For example, uistack(c,'up',2) moves c up two levels in the current stack.

Examples

Reorder Vector of Panels

Create five overlapping panels with different titles and background colors.

f = figure;

a = uipanel(f,'Title','A','BackgroundColor','white');
b = uipanel(f,'Title','B','BackgroundColor','cyan');
c = uipanel(f,'Title','C','BackgroundColor','green');
d = uipanel(f,'Title','D','BackgroundColor','yellow');
e = uipanel(f,'Title','E','BackgroundColor','magenta');

a.Position = [0.35 0.50 0.30 0.35];
b.Position = [0.18 0.40 0.30 0.35];
c.Position = [0.08 0.21 0.30 0.35];
d.Position = [0.25 0.33 0.32 0.35];
e.Position = [0.30 0.27 0.30 0.35];

List the order of children in the figure.

figChildren = f.Children

figChildren = 

  5×1 Panel array:

  Panel    (E)
  Panel    (D)
  Panel    (C)
  Panel    (B)
  Panel    (A)

Reorder the panels by shifting a and c up one level in the stack, relative to their previous positions.

comp = [a c];
uistack(comp);

List the children again. Changing the stacking order of the panels also changes the order of the children in the figure.

figChildren = f.Children

figChildren = 

  5×1 Panel array:

  Panel    (E)
  Panel    (C)
  Panel    (D)
  Panel    (A)
  Panel    (B)

Reorder Tabs in Tab Group

Create a figure that contains a tab group with five tabs.

f = figure;
tg = uitabgroup(f,'Position',[0.05 0.05 0.85 0.85]);
t1 = uitab('Title','Survey Questions');
t2 = uitab('Title','Demographic');
t3 = uitab('Title','Participant List');
t4 = uitab('Title','Raw Data');
t5 = uitab('Title','Plot');

Move the Raw Data tab to the bottom of the stack.

uistack(t4,'bottom');

Move the Survey Questions tab down two levels.

uistack(t1,'down',2);

Input Arguments

comp — UI component

single object | vector of objects

UI component to reorder, specified as a single object or vector of objects, such as Figure, Panel, ButtonGroup, UIControl, Axes, or Tab objects. Use this argument to specify the UI components you wish to reorder within the current stack.

If comp is specified as a vector of UI components, each component in the vector must share the same parent and the vector must be a subset of the children of the parent container. For example, if a figure has six child UI components, the vector comp can have no more than five elements.

moveto — Location

'up' (default) | 'down' | 'top' | 'bottom'

Location to move a UI component, specified as one of the values in the following table. Use this argument to specify the stack position you want a UI component to move to.

Move To Value	Description
'up'	Up step positions (one position by default).
'down'	Down step positions (one position by default).
'top'	To the top of the current stack.
'bottom'	To the bottom of the current stack.

step — Number of levels to shift

1 (default) | positive integer

Number of levels to shift a UI component up or down in a stack, specified as a positive integer.

If you specify a step number that is greater than the number of stack levels available to move, then the UI component will move to the top or bottom of the stack. For example, if you have five stack levels and you specify a component to move down six steps, that component will move to the bottom of the stack.

Compatibility Considerations

Stacking Order Might Display Differently in Older Apps

Behavior changed in R2014b

In previous releases, the order of components listed in the Children property matched the order in which they were created. However, this order did not necessarily match the visual stacking order of the components on the screen. To provide more consistent behavior, starting in R2014b, the order of components listed in the Children property matches the stacking order of child components on the screen. For more information about how the stacking behavior of UI components has changed and how to update your code, see Why Are Some Components Missing or Partially Obscured?