Setting different Cell-Formats in a Matlab uitable

Question

I am looking for a way to handle different type of data in one column of a Matlab uitable.

Usually uitable is used to set whole columns to the same data type, such as logical (gives a checkboxes), char (gives left-aligned text), numeric (gives right-aligned number) or a 1xn-cell-array (gives pop-up menus with different choices).

It is set using the columnformat property of uitable, e.g.

columnformat = {'numeric', 'logical', {'Fixed' 'Adjustable'}}; % 3 columns

You can find an example at matlab documentation.

I am looking for a way to set the format for single cells to realize something like this:

Answer 1

Matlab's uitable is a crippled version of an underlying JIDE table.
It is possible to get to the underlying java (see findjobj in file exchange), but that requires a lot of work. Yair Altman's undocumented matlab site is a good starting place for understanding the java side of matlab.

It sounds like you want something like a property editor, as opposed to a generic UI table -- i.e. properties listed in first column, property value editable in second column. There are a few "off the shelf" versions in the file exchange, which use JIDE:

See propertiesgui, or property-grid for mostly functional examples. The second example is easier to use -- you simply provide a class or struct, and it creates the proper field entry format. The first one offers more choices -- like color boxes, drop downs, etc, but requires you to be more involved in specifying how things behave.

Answer 2

I had the same problem, but in the end it worked by giving the (numeric) cell an (char) initial value. When changing the char value from the UI the format of the cell remained char, although the rest of the column was numeric.