How to display a dynamic elapsing time within a message box created by msgbox?

Hi, I have a message box that is created by msgbox and it is closed after 3 seconds. Is there a way to show the elapsed time, dynamically in one second intervals? Say the code is like

 tic
h1 = msgbox({'This message box will be closed in 3 seconds.' '' num2str(toc)} ,'Info');
uiwait(h1,3)
close (h1)

I have to say that the solution that exist in the following link doesn't work.

http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/newsreader/view_thread/288702

Answer 1

[Image Analyst]

msgbox() takes a static text. To get a dialog box where the elapsed time is continuously updated on the window, you'll have to create your own dialog box with a static text label. Periodically, like every second or whatever, you have to create a new string with sprintf() and send it to the label and call drawnow:

elapsedTime = toc(startTime); % Or however you compute it....
str = sprintf('Elapsed time = %f seconds.', elapsedTime);
handles.txtTimeLabel.String = str; % Send string to the text control on the GUI
drawnow;  % Force immediate update/refresh of the GUI.

[Ali Y.]

Thank you for your reply and the guide. As you said, I tried to make my own dialog box, but still have some problem with that; as it works fine when I run it outside of a function, but not inside of it. While it is inside the function, the countdown continue like for ever. I will appreciate any help regarding what would be the problem and how can I fix that?

The following lines are those that work properly:

 s.fh = figure('NumberTitle','off','Name', 'Elapse time', 'Units','characters',...
    'MenuBar','none', 'Toolbar','none', 'Position',[110 40 50 4],...
    'Visible','on');
s.tx2 = uicontrol(s.fh,'Style', 'text', 'position', [15 20 100 20],...
    'string', 'Elapsed Time:');
s.tx3 = uicontrol(s.fh,'Style', 'text', 'position', [135 20 100 20],...
    'string', '');
t = timer;
t.TimerFcn = 'stat=false';
t.Period = 1;
t.StartDelay = period;
t.TasksToExecute = period;
t.ExecutionMode = 'fixedRate';
start(t)
stat=true;
dispTime = period;
while(stat == true)
    set(s.tx3,'string',(dispTime))
    pause(1)
    dispTime = dispTime - 1;
end
stop(t);
delete(t);
close(s.fh)

And, the following lines are within the function I'm talking about.

 function etmsgbox (period) 
s.fh = figure('NumberTitle','off','Name', 'Elapse time', 'Units','characters',...
    'MenuBar','none', 'Toolbar','none', 'Position',[110 40 50 4],...
    'Visible','on');
s.tx2 = uicontrol(s.fh,'Style', 'text', 'position', [15 20 100 20],...
    'string', 'Elapsed Time:');
s.tx3 = uicontrol(s.fh,'Style', 'text', 'position', [135 20 100 20],...
    'string', '');
t = timer;
t.TimerFcn = 'stat=false';
t.Period = 1;
t.StartDelay = period;
t.TasksToExecute = period;
t.ExecutionMode = 'fixedRate';
start(t)
set(s.fh,'deletefcn',{@deleter})
stat=true;
dispTime = period;
while(stat == true)
    set(s.tx3,'string',(dispTime))
    pause(1)
    dispTime = dispTime - 1;
end
close(s.fh)
     function deleter(varargin)
         stop(t);
         delete(t);
     end
end

Answer 2

[Mathias]

function tmsgbox(inStr, tlim, varargin)
% message box with close timer

% inStr = 'This is still for testing';
% tlim = 3; % seconds

if ischar(inStr)
    inStr = {inStr};
end

tdiff = 0;
t = msgbox([inStr; {sprintf('%.1f sec.', tlim-tdiff)}], varargin{:});
tstart = now; % in days
while isgraphics(t) && tdiff < tlim
    % Children(2) = axes
    % Children(2).Children(1) = text in axes
    t.Children(2).Children(1).String = [inStr; {sprintf('%.1f sec.', tlim-tdiff)}];
    pause(0.2);
    tdiff = (now-tstart)*3600*24; % days to seconds
end
if isgraphics(t)
    % delete if timer is at zero
    delete(t);
end

isgraphics() fails if user delete the box by click.

Edit (04.02.2020): as function to replace msgbox