RangeSlider

Range slider UI component

Since R2023b

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Description

A range slider UI component allows an app user to select a range of values along a continuum. Use the RangeSlider object to modify the appearance and behavior of a range slider after you create it.

Creation

Create a range slider in an app using the uislider function, specifying the slider style as "range".

Properties

Slider

Value — Slider value

[0 100] (default) | two-element numeric array

Slider value, specified as a two-element numeric array. Both elements of the array must be within the range specified by the Limits property value.

Data Types: double

Limits — Minimum and maximum slider values

[0 100] (default) | two-element numeric array

Minimum and maximum slider values, specified as a two-element numeric array. The first value must be less than the second value.

If you change Limits such that either element of the Value property is less than the new lower limit, MATLAB^® sets that element of the Value property to the new lower limit. For example, suppose the Limits property is [0 100] and Value is [20 70]. If the Limits changes to [50 100], then MATLAB sets the Value property to [50 70].

Similarly, if you change Limits such that either element of the Value property is greater than the new upper limit, MATLAB sets that element of the Value property to the new upper limit.

Data Types: double

Orientation — Orientation

'horizontal' (default) | 'vertical'

Orientation of slider, specified as 'horizontal' or 'vertical'.

Step — Slider value step size

0.1 (default) | positive number

Since R2024a

Slider value step size, specified as a positive number. When an app user interactively changes the slider value using the slider thumbs, the Step property restricts the valid values to increments of the step size from the slider minimum.

For example, this code creates a range slider with a step size of 4. When you interact with the slider, the thumbs snap to values that are multiples of 4 from the slider minimum of 0.

fig = uifigure;
sld = uislider(fig,"range","Step",4);

Setting the Step property sets the StepMode property to 'manual'.

StepMode — Slider step mode

'auto' (default) | 'manual'

Slider step mode, specified as one of these values:

• 'auto' — MATLAB determines the slider value step size based on the slider limits.

• 'manual' — You specify the slider value step size using the Step property.

Ticks

MajorTicks — Major tick mark locations

[0 20 40 60 80 100] (default) | vector of numeric values | []

Major tick mark locations, specified as a vector of numeric values or an empty vector. If you do not want to show major tick marks, specify this property as an empty vector.

Tick locations that are outside the range of the Limits property do not display.

MATLAB removes duplicate tick values. However, if a major tick falls on the same value as a minor tick, only the major tick displays.

Setting the MajorTicks property sets the MajorTicksMode property to 'manual'.

MajorTicksMode — Major tick creation mode

'auto' (default) | 'manual'

Major tick creation mode, specified as one of the following:

• 'auto' — MATLAB determines the placement of major ticks.

• 'manual' — You specify the MajorTicks value array.

MajorTickLabels — Major tick labels

{'0','20','40','60','80','100'} (default) | cell array of character vectors | string array | {} | ...

Major tick labels, specified as a cell array of character vectors, string array, or 1-D categorical array. If you do not want to show tick labels, specify this property as an empty cell array. If you want to remove a label from a specific tick mark, specify an empty character vector or empty string scalar for the corresponding element in the MajorTickLabels array. If you specify this property as a categorical array, MATLAB uses the values in the array, not the full set of categories.

If the length of the MajorTickLabels array is different from the length of the MajorTicks vector, MATLAB ignores the extra entries of the longer array. If there are extra labels, they are ignored. If there are extra tick marks, they display without labels.

Setting MajorTickLabels changes the MajorTickLabelsMode value to 'manual'.

Note

Setting MajorTickLabels when MajorTicksMode is 'auto' might lead to unexpected results. To avoid this behavior, set MajorTicksMode to 'manual' and manually specify the value of MajorTicks before setting MajorTickLabels.

MajorTickLabelsMode — Major tick labels mode

'auto' (default) | 'manual'

Major tick labels mode, specified as one of the following:

• 'auto' — MATLAB specifies the major tick labels.

• 'manual' — You specify the major tick labels using the MajorTickLabels property.

MinorTicks — Minor tick mark locations

[0 4 8 12 ... 100] (default) | vector of numeric values | []

Minor tick mark locations, specified as a vector of numeric values or an empty vector. If you do not want to show minor tick marks, specify this property as an empty vector.

Tick locations that are outside the range of the Limits property do not display.

MATLAB removes duplicate tick values. However, if a minor tick falls on the same value as a major tick, only the major tick displays.

Setting the MinorTicks property value sets the MinorTicksMode property value to 'manual'.

MinorTicksMode — Minor tick creation mode

'auto' (default) | 'manual'

Minor tick creation mode, specified as 'auto' or 'manual'.

When MinorTicksMode is set to 'auto', MATLAB determines the placement of minor ticks.

Font

FontName — Font name

system supported font name

Font name, specified as a system supported font name. The default font depends on the specific operating system and locale.

If the specified font is not available, then MATLAB uses the best match among the fonts available on the system where the app is running.

Example: 'Arial'

FontSize — Font size

positive number

Font size, specified as a positive number. The units of measurement are pixels. The default font size depends on the specific operating system and locale.

Example: 14

FontWeight — Font weight

'normal' (default) | 'bold'

Font weight, specified as one of these values:

• 'normal' — Default weight as defined by the particular font

• 'bold' — Thicker character outlines than 'normal'

Not all fonts have a bold font weight. For fonts that do not, specifying 'bold' results in the normal font weight.

FontAngle — Font angle

'normal' (default) | 'italic'

Font angle, specified as 'normal' or 'italic'. Not all fonts have an italic font angle. For fonts that do not, specifying 'italic' results in the normal font angle.

FontColor — Font color

[0 0 0] (default) | RGB triplet | hexadecimal color code | 'r' | 'g' | 'b' | ...

Font color, specified as an RGB triplet, a hexadecimal color code, or one of the options listed in the table.

RGB triplets and hexadecimal color codes are useful for specifying custom colors.

• An RGB triplet is a three-element row vector whose elements specify the intensities of the red, green, and blue components of the color. The intensities must be in the range [0,1]; for example, [0.4 0.6 0.7].

• A hexadecimal color code is a character vector or a string scalar that starts with a hash symbol (#) followed by three or six hexadecimal digits, which can range from 0 to F. The values are not case sensitive. Thus, the color codes "#FF8800", "#ff8800", "#F80", and "#f80" are equivalent.

Alternatively, you can specify some common colors by name. This table lists the named color options, the equivalent RGB triplets, and hexadecimal color codes.

Color Name	Short Name	RGB Triplet	Hexadecimal Color Code	Appearance
"red"	"r"	[1 0 0]	"#FF0000"
"green"	"g"	[0 1 0]	"#00FF00"
"blue"	"b"	[0 0 1]	"#0000FF"
"cyan"	"c"	[0 1 1]	"#00FFFF"
"magenta"	"m"	[1 0 1]	"#FF00FF"
"yellow"	"y"	[1 1 0]	"#FFFF00"
"black"	"k"	[0 0 0]	"#000000"
"white"	"w"	[1 1 1]	"#FFFFFF"

Here are the RGB triplets and hexadecimal color codes for the default colors MATLAB uses in many types of plots.

RGB Triplet	Hexadecimal Color Code	Appearance
[0 0.4470 0.7410]	"#0072BD"
[0.8500 0.3250 0.0980]	"#D95319"
[0.9290 0.6940 0.1250]	"#EDB120"
[0.4940 0.1840 0.5560]	"#7E2F8E"
[0.4660 0.6740 0.1880]	"#77AC30"
[0.3010 0.7450 0.9330]	"#4DBEEE"
[0.6350 0.0780 0.1840]	"#A2142F"

Interactivity

Visible — State of visibility

'on' (default) | on/off logical value

State of visibility, specified as 'on' or 'off', or as numeric or logical 1 (true) or 0 (false). A value of 'on' is equivalent to true, and 'off' is equivalent to false. Thus, you can use the value of this property as a logical value. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.

• 'on' — Display the object.

• 'off' — Hide the object without deleting it. You still can access the properties of an invisible UI component.

To make your app start faster, set the Visible property to 'off' for all UI components that do not need to appear at startup.

Enable — Operational state

'on' (default) | on/off logical value

Operational state, specified as 'on' or 'off', or as numeric or logical 1 (true) or 0 (false). A value of 'on' is equivalent to true, and 'off' is equivalent to false. Thus, you can use the value of this property as a logical value. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.

• If you set this property to 'on', the app user can interact with the component.

• If you set this property to 'off', the component appears dimmed, indicating that the app user cannot interact with it, and that it will not trigger a callback.

Tooltip — Tooltip

'' (default) | character vector | cell array of character vectors | string array | 1-D categorical array

Tooltip, specified as a character vector, cell array of character vectors, string array, or 1-D categorical array. Use this property to display a message when the user hovers the pointer over the component at run time. The tooltip displays even when the component is disabled. To display multiple lines of text, specify a cell array of character vectors or a string array. Each element in the array becomes a separate line of text. If you specify this property as a categorical array, MATLAB uses the values in the array, not the full set of categories.

ContextMenu — Context menu

empty GraphicsPlaceholder array (default) | ContextMenu object

Context menu, specified as a ContextMenu object created using the uicontextmenu function. Use this property to display a context menu when you right-click on a component.

Position

Position — Location and size of slider

[100 100 150 3] (default) | [left bottom width height]

Location and size of the slider excluding tick marks and labels, specified as a vector of the form [left bottom width height]. This table describes each element in the vector.

Element	Description
left	Distance from the inner left edge of the parent container to the outer left edge of the slider
bottom	Distance from the inner bottom edge of the parent container to the outer bottom edge of the slider
width	Distance between the right and left outer edges of the slider
height	Distance between the top and bottom outer edges of the slider

All measurements are in pixel units.

You cannot change the height of a slider when the Orientation property value is 'horizontal'. Similarly, you cannot change the width of a slider when the Orientation property value is 'vertical'.

The Position values are relative to the drawable area of the parent container. The drawable area is the area inside the borders of the container and does not include the area occupied by decorations such as a menu bar or title.

InnerPosition — Inner location and size of slider

[100 100 150 3] (default) | [left bottom width height]

Inner location and size of the slider, excluding tick marks and tick labels, specified as a vector of the form [left bottom width height]. Position values are relative to the parent container. All measurements are in pixel units. This property value is identical to the Position property.

OuterPosition — Outer location and size of slider

[93 70 166 39] (default) | [left bottom width height]

This property is read-only.

Outer location and size of the slider, including tick marks and tick labels, specified as a vector of the form [left bottom width height]. Position values are relative to the parent container. All measurements are in pixel units.

Layout — Layout options

empty LayoutOptions array (default) | GridLayoutOptions object

Layout options, specified as a GridLayoutOptions object. This property specifies options for components that are children of grid layout containers. If the component is not a child of a grid layout container (for example, it is a child of a figure or panel), then this property is empty and has no effect. However, if the component is a child of a grid layout container, you can place the component in the desired row and column of the grid by setting the Row and Column properties on the GridLayoutOptions object.

For example, this code places a slider in the third row and second column of its parent grid.

g = uigridlayout([4 3]);
s = uislider(g,"range");
s.Layout.Row = 3;
s.Layout.Column = 2;

To make the slider span multiple rows or columns, specify the Row or Column property as a two-element vector. For example, this slider spans columns 2 through 3:

s.Layout.Column = [2 3];

Callbacks

ValueChangedFcn — Value changed callback

'' (default) | function handle | cell array | character vector

Value changed callback, specified as one of these values:

• A function handle.

• A cell array in which the first element is a function handle. Subsequent elements in the cell array are the arguments to pass to the callback function.

• A character vector containing a valid MATLAB expression (not recommended). MATLAB evaluates this expression in the base workspace.

This callback executes when the user moves the thumb to a different position on the slider. The callback does not execute if the slider value changes programmatically.

This callback function can access specific information about the user’s interaction with the slider. MATLAB passes this information in a ValueChangedData object as the second argument to your callback function. In App Designer, the argument is called event. You can query the object properties using dot notation. For example, event.PreviousValue returns the previous value of the slider. The ValueChangedData object is not available to callback functions specified as character vectors.

The following table lists the properties of the ValueChangedData object.

Property	Value
Value	Value of slider after app user’s most recent interaction with it
PreviousValue	Value of slider before app user’s most recent interaction with it
Source	Component that executes the callback
EventName	'ValueChanged'

For more information about writing callbacks, see Callbacks in App Designer.

ValueChangingFcn — Value changing callback

'' (default) | function handle | cell array | character vector

Value changing callback, specified as one of these values:

• A function handle.

• A cell array in which the first element is a function handle. Subsequent elements in the cell array are the arguments to pass to the callback function.

• A character vector containing a valid MATLAB expression (not recommended). MATLAB evaluates this expression in the base workspace.

This callback executes as the user moves the thumb along the slider in the app. It does not execute if the Value property changes programmatically.

This callback can access specific information about the user’s interaction with the slider. MATLAB passes this information in a ValueChangingData object as the second argument to your callback function. In App Designer, the argument is called event. You can query the object properties using dot notation. For example, event.Value returns the current value of the slider. The ValueChangingData object is not available to callback functions specified as character vectors.

This table lists the properties of the ValueChangingData object.

Property	Value
Value	Current value of the slider as the app user is interacting with it
Source	Component that executes the callback
EventName	'ValueChanging'

The Value property of the Slider object is not updated until the user releases the slider thumb. Therefore, to get the value as the thumb is being moved, your code must get the Value property of the ValueChangingData object.

Note

Avoid updating the Value property of the Slider object from within its own ValueChangingFcn callback, as this might result in unexpected behavior. To update the slider value in response to user input, use a ValueChangedFcn callback instead.

The ValueChangingFcn callback executes as follows:

• If the app user clicks the slider value once or presses an arrow key, then the callback executes a single time. For example, if the slider is on 1.0, and the app user clicks at 1.1, then the callback executes once.

• If the app user clicks and drags the slider to a new position or holds down an arrow key, the callback executes repeatedly. For example, if the slider value is 1.0 and the app user clicks, holds, and drags the thumb to value 10.0, then the callback executes multiple times until the app user releases the thumb.

For more information about writing callbacks, see Callbacks in App Designer.

CreateFcn — Creation function

'' (default) | function handle | cell array | character vector

Object creation function, specified as one of these values:

• Function handle.

• Cell array in which the first element is a function handle. Subsequent elements in the cell array are the arguments to pass to the callback function.

• Character vector containing a valid MATLAB expression (not recommended). MATLAB evaluates this expression in the base workspace.

For more information about specifying a callback as a function handle, cell array, or character vector, see Callbacks in App Designer.

This property specifies a callback function to execute when MATLAB creates the object. MATLAB initializes all property values before executing the CreateFcn callback. If you do not specify the CreateFcn property, then MATLAB executes a default creation function.

Setting the CreateFcn property on an existing component has no effect.

If you specify this property as a function handle or cell array, you can access the object that is being created using the first argument of the callback function. Otherwise, use the gcbo function to access the object.

DeleteFcn — Deletion function

'' (default) | function handle | cell array | character vector

Object deletion function, specified as one of these values:

• Function handle.

• Cell array in which the first element is a function handle. Subsequent elements in the cell array are the arguments to pass to the callback function.

• Character vector containing a valid MATLAB expression (not recommended). MATLAB evaluates this expression in the base workspace.

For more information about specifying a callback as a function handle, cell array, or character vector, see Callbacks in App Designer.

This property specifies a callback function to execute when MATLAB deletes the object. MATLAB executes the DeleteFcn callback before destroying the properties of the object. If you do not specify the DeleteFcn property, then MATLAB executes a default deletion function.

If you specify this property as a function handle or cell array, you can access the object that is being deleted using the first argument of the callback function. Otherwise, use the gcbo function to access the object.

Callback Execution Control

Interruptible — Callback interruption

'on' (default) | on/off logical value

Callback interruption, specified as 'on' or 'off', or as numeric or logical 1 (true) or 0 (false). A value of 'on' is equivalent to true, and 'off' is equivalent to false. Thus, you can use the value of this property as a logical value. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.

This property determines if a running callback can be interrupted. There are two callback states to consider:

• The running callback is the currently executing callback.

• The interrupting callback is a callback that tries to interrupt the running callback.

MATLAB determines callback interruption behavior whenever it executes a command that processes the callback queue. These commands include drawnow, figure, uifigure, getframe, waitfor, and pause.

If the running callback does not contain one of these commands, then no interruption occurs. MATLAB first finishes executing the running callback, and later executes the interrupting callback.

If the running callback does contain one of these commands, then the Interruptible property of the object that owns the running callback determines if the interruption occurs:

• If the value of Interruptible is 'off', then no interruption occurs. Instead, the BusyAction property of the object that owns the interrupting callback determines if the interrupting callback is discarded or added to the callback queue.

• If the value of Interruptible is 'on', then the interruption occurs. The next time MATLAB processes the callback queue, it stops the execution of the running callback and executes the interrupting callback. After the interrupting callback completes, MATLAB then resumes executing the running callback.

Note

Callback interruption and execution behave differently in these situations:

• If the interrupting callback is a DeleteFcn, CloseRequestFcn, or SizeChangedFcn callback, then the interruption occurs regardless of the Interruptible property value.

• If the running callback is currently executing the waitfor function, then the interruption occurs regardless of the Interruptible property value.

• If the interrupting callback is owned by a Timer object, then the callback executes according to schedule regardless of the Interruptible property value.

Note

When an interruption occurs, MATLAB does not save the state of properties or the display. For example, the object returned by the gca or gcf command might change when another callback executes.

BusyAction — Callback queuing

'queue' (default) | 'cancel'

Callback queuing, specified as 'queue' or 'cancel'. The BusyAction property determines how MATLAB handles the execution of interrupting callbacks. There are two callback states to consider:

• The running callback is the currently executing callback.

• The interrupting callback is a callback that tries to interrupt the running callback.

The BusyAction property determines callback queuing behavior only when both of these conditions are met:

• The running callback contains a command that processes the callback queue, such as drawnow, figure, uifigure, getframe, waitfor, or pause.

• The value of the Interruptible property of the object that owns the running callback is 'off'.

Under these conditions, the BusyAction property of the object that owns the interrupting callback determines how MATLAB handles the interrupting callback. These are possible values of the BusyAction property:

• 'queue' — Puts the interrupting callback in a queue to be processed after the running callback finishes execution.

• 'cancel' — Does not execute the interrupting callback.

BeingDeleted — Deletion status

on/off logical value

This property is read-only.

Deletion status, returned as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.

MATLAB sets the BeingDeleted property to 'on' when the DeleteFcn callback begins execution. The BeingDeleted property remains set to 'on' until the component object no longer exists.

Check the value of the BeingDeleted property to verify that the object is not about to be deleted before querying or modifying it.

Parent/Child

Parent — Parent container

Figure object (default) | Panel object | Tab object | ButtonGroup object | GridLayout object

Parent container, specified as a Figure object created using the uifigure function, or one of its child containers: Tab, Panel, ButtonGroup, or GridLayout. If no container is specified, MATLAB calls the uifigure function to create a new Figure object that serves as the parent container.

HandleVisibility — Visibility of object handle

'on' (default) | 'callback' | 'off'

Visibility of the object handle, specified as 'on', 'callback', or 'off'.

This property controls the visibility of the object in its parent's list of children. When an object is not visible in its parent's list of children, it is not returned by functions that obtain objects by searching the object hierarchy or querying properties. These functions include get, findobj, clf, and close. Objects are valid even if they are not visible. If you can access an object, you can set and get its properties, and pass it to any function that operates on objects.

HandleVisibility Value	Description
'on'	The object is always visible.
'callback'	The object is visible from within callbacks or functions invoked by callbacks, but not from within functions invoked from the command line. This option blocks access to the object at the command-line, but allows callback functions to access it.
'off'	The object is invisible at all times. This option is useful for preventing unintended changes to the UI by another function. Set the HandleVisibility to 'off' to temporarily hide the object during the execution of that function.

Identifiers

Type — Type of graphics object

'uirangeslider'

This property is read-only.

Type of graphics object, returned as 'uirangeslider'.

Tag — Object identifier

'' (default) | character vector | string scalar

Object identifier, specified as a character vector or string scalar. You can specify a unique Tag value to serve as an identifier for an object. When you need access to the object elsewhere in your code, you can use the findobj function to search for the object based on the Tag value.

UserData — User data

[] (default) | array

User data, specified as any MATLAB array. For example, you can specify a scalar, vector, matrix, cell array, character array, table, or structure. Use this property to store arbitrary data on an object.

If you are working in App Designer, create public or private properties in the app to share data instead of using the UserData property. For more information, see Share Data Within App Designer Apps.

Object Functions

focus

Focus UI component

Examples

Code Response to Moving Slider Thumb

Create an app with a plot and a range slider. When an app user moves either of the slider thumbs, the shaded region of the plot updates to reflect the range slider value.

In a file named rangeSliderApp.m, write a function that implements the app:

• Create a UI figure and a grid layout manager to lay out the app.

• Create UI axes and a range slider in the grid layout manager. Plot some data in the UI axes and create a filled region to highlight a portion of the data.

• Write a callback function named updateRange that updates the range of the filled region to match the range slider value, and assign the function to the ValueChangingFcn callback property of the range slider. For more information about callbacks, see Create Callbacks for Apps Created Programmatically.

function rangeSliderApp
fig = uifigure;
g = uigridlayout(fig);
g.RowHeight = {'1x','fit'};
g.ColumnWidth = {'1x'};

ax = uiaxes(g);
plot(ax,peaks);
xr = xregion(ax,10,35);

sld = uislider(g,"range", ...
    "Limits",[0 50], ...
    "Value",[10 35]);

sld.ValueChangingFcn = @(src,event) updateRange(src,event,xr);
end

function updateRange(src,event,xr)
val = event.Value;
xr.Value = val;
end

Run the rangeSliderApp function and move the slider thumbs. The filled region in the axes updates as you drag either of the thumbs.

Version History

Introduced in R2023b

R2024a: Specify slider step size

Use the Step property to specify the amount that the slider value changes when a user interacts with the slider thumbs.