Issue with TickLabelInterpreter using uifigure

I need to display the tick labels on multiple lines and I was able to come up to a good solution using latex code. Unfortunately, this solution doesn't work when using uifigure(). Any tips?

tmpLabels = {'Session 1','Session 2','Session 3','Session 4'};
tmpLabels2 = {'(Condition 1)','(Condition 2)','(Condition 1)','(Condition 2)'};
n = numel(tmpLabels);
tmpLabels3 = cell(1,n);
for tmpId = 1:n
    tmpLabels3{tmpId} = sprintf('\\begin{tabular}{c} %s \\\\ %s \\end{tabular}',tmpLabels{tmpId},tmpLabels2{tmpId});
end

% This works fine
tmpF = figure('Position',[650,550,700,400]);
tmpT = tiledlayout(tmpF,1,3,'TileSpacing','tight','Padding','compact');
title(tmpT,'Figure');
tmpAx = nexttile(tmpT,[1 2]);
set(tmpAx,'XLim',[0.8 4.2],'XTick',1:4,'XTickLabel',tmpLabels3,'TickLabelInterpreter','latex','Box','on','YGrid','on')

% The same code doesn't work when using uifigure() in place of figure()
tmpUiF = uifigure('Position',[650,550,700,400]);
tmpUiT = tiledlayout(tmpUiF,1,3,'TileSpacing','tight','Padding','compact');
title(tmpUiT,'UI Figure');
tmpUiAx = nexttile(tmpUiT,[1 2]);
set(tmpUiAx,'XLim',[0.8 4.2],'XTick',1:4,'XTickLabel',tmpLabels3,'TickLabelInterpreter','latex','Box','on','YGrid','on')

[Ryan Romeo]

I'm assuming here that you definitely want to use the 'latex' interpreter, and you don't want to use a workaround that involves manually positioning text boxes.

I found a passable way to do it without using the \tabular LaTeX environment. Curiously, the line break (\\) only registers when I put the entire label into a math environment (between $ symbols). Each row of text is enclosed in a \text environment to avoid the math environment font. Also since I dropped the table environment, the code loses its centering properties, so I manually shifted the top row with ~'s. See code below:

% New label cell array
tmpLabels4 = cell(1,n);
for tmpId = 1:n
    tmpLabels4{tmpId} = [ '$~~~~\text{' tmpLabels{tmpId} '}\\ \text{' tmpLabels2{tmpId} '}$' ];
end

If you insert the above code before your 'uifigure' code, and then change the 'XTickLabel' argument from tmpLabels3 to tmpLabels4, it should give you something close to what the regular figure's labels looks like.

[Tommaso Mastropasqua]

Thank you for your prompt response.

I hope the support team can fix the LaTeX environment within uifigure(), because the \tabular function is the only solution I have found for an efficient horizontal alignment of multiple labels.

May I follow up with another error I get when trying to save a uifigure containing a uitable? Or maybe should I opena a new request?

tmpLabels = {'Session 1','Session 2','Session 3','Session 4'};
tmpLabels2 = {'(Condition 1)','(Condition 2)','(Condition 1)','(Condition 2)'};
n = numel(tmpLabels);
tmpLabels3 = cell(1,n);
for tmpId = 1:n
   tmpLabels3{tmpId} = sprintf('$~~~$ %s $\\\\$ %s}',tmpLabels{tmpId},tmpLabels2{tmpId});
end
tmpUiF = uifigure('Position',[550,550,850,400]);
tmpUiT = tiledlayout(tmpUiF,1,3,'TileSpacing','tight','Padding','compact');
title(tmpUiT,'UI Figure');
tmpUiAx = nexttile(tmpUiT,[1 2]);
set(tmpUiAx,'XLim',[0.8 4.2],'XTick',1:4,'XTickLabel',tmpLabels3,'TickLabelInterpreter','latex',...
   'Box','on','YGrid','on')
tmpUiAx = nexttile(tmpUiT);
axis(tmpUiAx,'off')
drawnow
tmpUit = uitable(tmpUiF,'Data',magic(3),'ColumnName',{},'RowName',{},...
  'Units','Normalized','Position',tmpUiAx.Position,'FontSize',14);
tmpS = uistyle('HorizontalAlignment','center','Interpreter','latex');
addStyle(tmpUit,tmpS)
tmpS = uistyle('BackgroundColor',[0.94 0.94 0.94]);
addStyle(tmpUit,tmpS,'row',1:2:3)
tmpS = uistyle('BackgroundColor','w');
addStyle(tmpUit,tmpS,'row',2:2:3)
tmpS = uistyle('BackgroundColor',[0.8 0.8 0.8],'FontWeight','bold');
addStyle(tmpUit,tmpS,'row',1)
tmpS = uistyle('Icon','success','IconAlignment','rightmargin');

addStyle(tmpUit,tmpS,'cell',[2 3; 3 3]) %--- This line triggers the error using exportapp ---%

exportapp(tmpUiF,'myUifig.png');

Answer 1

[Divyanshu]

This solution is for the error you are getting while exporting the figure into a file.

One possible workaround to resolve the issue is by using ‘exportgraphics’ function instead of the ‘exportapp’.

The reason is that the ‘exportapp’ function is not able to export the figure into the file because of the ‘success-icon’ added to the cells of the table ‘tmpUit’, just before exporting the figure.

Please refer the following documentation for further information about ‘exportgraphics’ function:

Save plot or graphics content to file - MATLAB exportgraphics (mathworks.com)

(Note: The above workaround is for the second problem, one you mentioned in the comments.)

[Tommaso Mastropasqua]

Thank you for your suggestion. However, upon using the 'exportgraphics' function instead of 'exportapp', I received a warning indicating that the UI components won't be included in the output. The 'exportapp' function is recommended for including UI components. Additionally, the output generated by 'exportgraphics' does not contain the 'uitable', which is crucial for my requirements.