generate Excel read boxes

I have created an app, where i have to generate excel read boxes instead of dynamic input boxes. Example: if i give number of boxes as 5, i'm able to generate 5 tabs, and able to add editfields and enter button to the app. In editfield named as number of bags, if i enter 5 i'm able to generate 5 input boxes. In each input boxes i'm after entering the number of balls in each bag and clicking the enter button. Now i want to generate those many excel read boxes( If i enter 2 in one of the dynamic input box and click enter i want to generate 2 excel read file boxes, where each excel read file box is for each ball ), I have attached the file for further references.

Answer 1

[Pratyush Swain]

Hi Virajita,

Since your shared app designer code file already contains implementation for generating dynamic input boxes, I am assuming reading excel files and alloting values to the input boxes is your prime roadblock.

Please refer to uiget function to select excel file through GUI and then you can utilise the readcell or readmatrix function to extract data from the excel file. You can refer to these MATLAB answer threads for the same:

1- https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/1703590-reading-value-from-excel-file-in-app-designer

2- https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/1690970-how-to-read-excel-data-in-app-designer

If you still face difficulty in implementation , you can refer to a very identical question thread which has been answered in detail: https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/2107681-how-to-read-data-for-button-in-app-designer-using-matlab

Hope this helps.

[Vaibhavi Pallavaneni]

Hi Pratyush Swain, First of all thanks for your response and source. Actually I don't want to read the values from excel, what i required is instead of those boxes i want to generate import excel files. To give more clarity Instead of generating those boxes circled in red, i want to generate excel import file boxes based on the input given which is indicated with green arrow.

[Pratyush Swain]

Hi Virajita,

Correct me if I am wrong but what I understood from your explanation is by "generate import excel files" you mean generate "import from excel" buttons dynamically ? For example if you enter 5 balls , then 5 "import from excel buttons" should come below it ?

If this is the case, then I have some more clarifying questions -

1- What would be purpose of these "read excel" buttons ?

2- What will happen if we click these buttons ? Will a prompt open up to select an excel file ? But what happens after we select an excel file ?

Thanks

[Vaibhavi Pallavaneni]

Hi Pratyush Swain, Yes, I meant to generate "import from excel" buttons dynamically. The purpose of these "read excel" buttons are to import Excel files from the device. Actually Number of balls in the bag represent number of ball sets in the bag (My mistake). After we select the Excel files, I want to plot the bar graph between different balls inside each set of balls in the bag.

Thanks

[Pratyush Swain]

Hi Virajita,

So your input for"number of balls" for each bag is actually "number of set of balls",and you want to generate "import excel" buttons equivalent to "number of set of balls" for each bag ? Also you do not want to showcase the values you jst want to store them after reading from excel file so you have can have a plot later ?

Thanks

[Vaibhavi Pallavaneni]

Hi Pratyush Swain, Yes, I know I'm lacking perfect words to put into it for explaining my problem. But anyway u understand it.

[Pratyush Swain]

Hi Virajita,

Please go through this example workflow, which will help you in your usecase:

1- I have added a new property to your app named "readExcelButtons" which will store the graphics object for "read excel" buttons corresponding to box number, ball set number & ball number. I modiified the earlier property "ImportCelldata" to only capture the data from each read excel buttons.

2- I have modified the "enterButtonPushed_2" function accordingly:

function enterButtonPushed_2(app, tab,Box)             
    numBalls = app.editFields(Box).Value;
    app.ImportCelldata{Box} = cell(1,numBalls);
    app.ExcelReadButtons{Box} = cell(1,numBalls);

    initialPosition = [50, 375 , 50, 22];
    
       for n = 1:numBalls
           initialPosition_1 = initialPosition + [(n-1)*70,0,0,0];                   
           numCells = app.DynamicInputBoxes{Box}(n).Value;
           app.ImportCelldata{Box,n} = cell(1,numCells);
           app.ExcelReadButtons{Box,n} = gobjects(1,numCells);

           for i = 1:numCells
               fieldPosition_1 = initialPosition_1 +[0,-(i)*30, 0, 0];   
               app.ExcelReadButtons{Box,n}(i)=uibutton(tab, 'push', ...
                                                        'Position', fieldPosition_1, ...
                                                        'Text', 'Imp.Excel', ...
                                                        'ButtonPushedFcn', @(btn,event) readExcelButtonPushed(app, btn, Box, n ,i));                       
           end
       end
    
end

3- Also I added a new funtion "readexcelButtonPushed" as a callback to readexcel buttons:

% Addded comments for better understanding %
function readExcelButtonPushed(app, btn, Box, Ball, Cell)
    [file, path] = uigetfile({'*.xlsx;*.xls', 'Excel Files (*.xlsx, *.xls)'}, 'Select an Excel File');
    if isequal(file, 0)
        warning('No valid excel file found');
    else
        fullPath = fullfile(path, file);
        % Read the file into a matrix
        data = readmatrix(fullPath);
        % Store the data in your property variable
        app.ImportCelldata{Box, Ball , Cell} = data;
        % Change the button color to green and text to operation done to indicate success
        btn.BackgroundColor = [0.0, 1.0, 0.0];
        btn.Text = "Op.Done";
    end
end

Please note here the "app.ImportCelldata{Box, Ball , Cell}" will contain your relevant data and you can use it later to plot data. Also please modify the data reading part from excel as per your expected data.

After the changes the app takes the following shape:

Please note here after clicking a "import excel button" and selecting file,it changes to green with text as "Operation done" signifying read operation has been performed. We can fetch the values from the "ImportCelldata" property as follows:

The app.ImportCelldata{1,2,1} points to the excel data assigned in the 1st Box, 2nd Ball set,1st Ball.Similarly you can see app.ImportCelldata{1,2,2} currently contains no data.

Hope this example workflow helps you , I have attached the file for your reference, you can modify it as per your need.

Thanks.

[Vaibhavi Pallavaneni]

Hi @Pratyush Swain, I encounter with an issue from above code. The issue is while we are able to generate dynamic excel read buttons from above code. If we change the input at number of balls for each bag, the dynamic excel read buttons are not changing according to the input given. To overcome this issue i have added below code. But it is only able to change the first excel read button and unable to change for other inputs.

I have added this code after, function enterButtonPushed_2(app, tab,Box)

code:

if ~isempty(app.ExcelReadButtons{Box})

delete(app.ExcelReadButtons{Box});

end