How to handle large variables in workspace

I have a code shown below which reads data from data aquisition object and updates variable signal and update time plot and specturm plot. the problem is that, as measurement goes along(which means very large size of variable signal), plot update speed and UIApp(created by app designer) performance get significantly slow. threshold timing depends on sampling frequency. In case of 51200Hz, I found it is approximately 40sec. but I need to measure data while 120sec... so how can I handle this large size of data generated in workspace?

n = ceil(app.daqDevice.Rate/10);
signal = [];
% start measurement
start(app.daqDevice,"continuous")
pause(0.1)
while(1)
    % check measurement end condition
    if app.Button_2.Value == 1
        stop(app.daqDevice)
        app.Button.Value = 0;
        save(fullfile(app.SaveFolderPath,...
            str2double(app.TrialNumber_Value.Text)+...
            "_"+app.SpeedList.Value+".mat"),...
            'signal')
        return;
    end
    % read data form DataAquisition Obj
    data = read(app.daqDevice,n);
    % update measured value
    signal = [signal; data];
    % update time plot
    plot(app.Timeplot,data.Time, data.Variables)
    ylim(app.Timeplot,[-1,1])
    % update spectrum plot
    [pxx,f] = pwelch(data.Variables,512,256,1024,32000);
    plot(app.PSDplot,f, 10*log10(pxx))
end

Answer 1

[Chunru]

Only process the latest data and throw away old data. You need to consider streaming processing of your data. See suggestions below in the code.

n = ceil(app.daqDevice.Rate/10);
%signal = [];
% Pre-allocate memory space for fixed amount of data
% This will make program faster 
signal = zeros(nmax, 1);  % nmax number of samples

% For data logging, consider fopen and fwrite for speed.

% start measurement
start(app.daqDevice,"continuous")
pause(0.1)
while(1)
    % check measurement end condition
    if app.Button_2.Value == 1
        stop(app.daqDevice)
        app.Button.Value = 0;
        
        % save data block by block not in one-go
        save(fullfile(app.SaveFolderPath,...
            str2double(app.TrialNumber_Value.Text)+...
            "_"+app.SpeedList.Value+".mat"),...
            'signal')
        return;
    end
    
    % read data form DataAquisition Obj
    data = read(app.daqDevice,n);
    % save data here using fwrite
    
    % update measured value
    signal(1:nmax-n) = singal(n+1:nmax);  % shift data
    signal(nmax-n+1:nmax) = data;         % attach new data
    
    %signal(nmax ) = [signal; data];
    % update time plot
    % plot the buffered signal instead of all signal
    plot(app.Timeplot, data.Time, data.Variables)
    
    ylim(app.Timeplot,[-1,1])
    
    % compute spectrum on buffered data signal below
    % update spectrum plot
    [pxx,f] = pwelch(data.Variables,512,256,1024,32000);
    plot(app.PSDplot,f, 10*log10(pxx))
end

[진환 유]

Thank you so much! your suggestion gave me a good insight. based on that, I solved my problem.

[Chunru]

Nice to learn that.

[Frederick Acquah]

I tried this code and I am getting an error because the data type of signal is a double while data is a timetable.