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uistack

Reorder visual stacking of UI components

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Syntax

uistack(comp)
uistack(comp,moveto)
uistack(comp,moveto,step)

Description

example

Note

The uistack function is not supported in App Designer or in apps created using the uifigure function. Instead, modify the stacking order of components in a container by setting the Children property of the container. For more information, see Change Front-to-Back Component Order.

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.

example

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.

example

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

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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];

Five panels in a figure window. The stacking order of the panels, from top to bottom, is E, D, C, B, A.

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);

Five panels in a figure window. The stacking order of the panels, from top to bottom, is E, C, D, A, B.

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)

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');

Five tabs in a tab group. The order of the tabs, from left to right, is Survey Questions, Demographic, Participant List, Raw Data, and Plot. The Plot tab is selected.

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

uistack(t4,'bottom');

Five tabs in a tab group. The order of the tabs, from left to right, is Survey Questions, Demographic, Participant List, Plot, and Raw Data. The Raw Data tab is selected.

Move the Survey Questions tab down two levels.

uistack(t1,'down',2);

Five tabs in a tab group. The order of the tabs, from left to right, is Demographic, Participant List, Survey Questions, Plot, and Raw Data. The Survey Questions tab is selected.

Input Arguments

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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 want to reorder within the current stack.

If comp is specified as a vector of UI components, each component in the vector must share a 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.

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 ValueDescription
'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.

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 moves 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 moves to the bottom of the stack.

Version History

Introduced before R2006a

See Also

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