Matlab GUI Tutorial - Close GUI Confirmation

Introduction

This tutorial will show you how to create a confirmation window when you attempt to close the GUI. Sometimes, the user might accidentally close the GUI window without meaning to. To protect against this, we can implement a confirmation window that appears when the user attempts to close the GUI. This feature can protect the user from losing any work that has been performed.

This tutorial is written for those with some experience creating a Matlab GUI. If you’re new to creating GUIs in Matlab, you should visit this tutorial first. Basic knowledge of Matlab is highly recommended. Matlab version 2007a is used in writing this tutorial. Both earlier versions and new versions should be compatible as well (as long as it isan’t too outdated). Let’s get started!

Creating the Confirmation Window: Method 1

First, you need to add the following line of code to the opening function of your GUI.
```
set(handles.figure1,'CloseRequestFcn',@closeGUI);
```
This line is of code is telling matlab to run the closeGUI function once someone attempts to close the GUI figure. Make sure to put this line of code before the line
```
guidata(hObject, handles);
```

Next, copy this code at the end of the GUI .m file OR in a separate .m file, but make sure it’s saved in the same directory where the GUI files are located.

function closeGUI(src,evnt)
%src is the handle of the object generating the callback (the source of the event)
%evnt is the The event data structure (can be empty for some callbacks)
selection = questdlg('Do you want to close the GUI?',...
                     'Close Request Function',...
                     'Yes','No','Yes');
switch selection,
   case 'Yes',
    delete(gcf)
   case 'No'
     return
end

Creating the Confirmation Window: Method 2

First, you need to add the following line of code to the opening function of your GUI.
```
set(handles.figure1,'CloseRequestFcn','closeGUI');
```
Notice that instead of the @, we use the single quotation marks. By using the single quotation marks, you are assigning a separate m-file to the close request function of the figure. Make sure to put this line of code before the line
```
guidata(hObject, handles);
```

Next, copy this code into a separate .m file, but make sure it’s saved in the same directory where the GUI files are located. Notice that we did not define any input arguments here.

function closeGUI
 
selection = questdlg('Do you want to close the GUI?',...
                     'Close Request Function',...
                     'Yes','No','Yes');
switch selection,
   case 'Yes',
    delete(gcf)
   case 'No'
     return
end

And that’s it!!! Pretty simple like I mentioned. If you want to see an example, go ahead to the next page.

Pages: 1 2

13 Responses to “Matlab GUI Tutorial - Close GUI Confirmation”

on 04 Jan 2008 at 10:06 am 1Oskar Vivero

Hello!

I have found some really interesting tricks and guidelines for GUI programming in Matlab. I was testing this particular code, and Matlab will output an error:

??? Undefined function or variable ‘closeGUI’.

??? Error while evaluating figure CloseRequestFcn

I corrected it by changing the opening function line to

set(handles.figure1,’CloseRequestFcn’,@closeGUI);

and also, by changing the closeGUI function line to accept 2 arguments (src,evnt) as per matlab’s help

function my_closereq(src,evnt)
% User-defined close request function
% to display a question dialog box
selection = questdlg(’Close This Figure?’,…
‘Close Request Function’,…
‘Yes’,'No’,'Yes’);
switch selection,
case ‘Yes’,
delete(gcf)
case ‘No’
return
end

on 04 Jan 2008 at 10:56 am 2Quan Quach

thanks oscar for pointing that out. there are two ways to go about doing this.

you can define the closeGUI function from within the GUI .m file, or you can define the closeGUI function inside a separate m-file. i will update the tutorial to show how to do it both ways.

on 19 Feb 2008 at 1:47 pm 3serotonin

Heya,
could you wright a small piece of
% your details
if we would like to give you credits in our code for your functions

Thanks for the help

on 15 Oct 2008 at 2:32 pm 4Anonymous

Hey Quan, all of your tutorials are very helpful. I have a quick question though, how do you pass the handles structure into the the closeGUI function? I wanted to clean up some serial port objects before my GUI closes, but I can’t seem to get it to recognize the handles structure.

This is an idea of what I want to do:
function closeGUI(src,evnt,handles)
fclose(handles.port);
delete(handles.port);
clear handles.port;

Thanks in advance.

on 15 Oct 2008 at 9:05 pm 5Quan Quach

Hello Anonymous,

That is a good question
Here’s what you can do:

function closeGUI(src,evnt)
%src is the handle of the object generating the callback (the source of the event)
%evnt is the The event data structure (can be empty for some callbacks)
 
handlesData = guidata(src); %handlesData is the handles structure
%now you can do all that cleanup

on 16 Oct 2008 at 2:21 pm 6Anonymous

Ah thank you very much. Worked perfectly. After reading the Matlab documentation on GUIDATA, it said that you could also do guidata(gcbo). What’s the difference? GCBO refers to the current GUI right? src I’m guessing does the same thing, with the source in this case being the current GUI as well?

on 19 Oct 2008 at 12:38 am 7LULU

When i want to disable all my connections, it came out this error and i could not do anything to my connections.
“This connection maybe using one or more protocols that do not support Plug-And-Play, or it may have been initiated by other user or the system account.”
Hope u are able to help me. Thanks.

on 01 May 2009 at 7:41 am 8Chris

Hi QQ,

Thanks again for the tutorials! I’ve tried the code out, and it works perfectly if there is one gui open, but if there are two present, then closing function always closes the first one (when I’ve written it in the second one!)

I’m assuming that I have to specify the actual handle of the figure that I want it to close, but I’m at a loss at how to do it.

Gratitude to wisdom!

on 11 May 2009 at 5:36 am 9Akis

thank you very much for the script

on 06 Feb 2010 at 2:22 am 10jaaoi

Hello !

I need to source code matlab GUI ‘Thermodynamic close system’ condition are design to be spring

thank you

on 24 Mar 2010 at 2:05 am 11Murtaza

Fantastic tutorials hats off to you, tutorials like these can certainly motivate beginners and inspire them to go more deeper into the programming. Thanks a lot

on 11 May 2010 at 8:24 pm 12busy_bee

Hi
I found this tutorial very interesting but i have small problem

My gui has a close button which will stop the current operation and then close the GUI.
now when i use
set(handles.figure1,’CloseRequestFcn’,@closeGUI);
this line and its function my code enters infinite loop.
here is my full code

function varargout = AudioDisplay(varargin)
gui_Singleton = 1;
gui_State = struct('gui_Name',       mfilename, ...
                   'gui_Singleton',  gui_Singleton, ...
                   'gui_OpeningFcn', @AudioDisplay_OpeningFcn, ...
                   'gui_OutputFcn',  @AudioDisplay_OutputFcn, ...
                   'gui_LayoutFcn',  [] , ...
                   'gui_Callback',   []);
if nargin &amp;&amp; ischar(varargin{1})
    gui_State.gui_Callback = str2func(varargin{1});
end
if nargout
    [varargout{1:nargout}] = gui_mainfcn(gui_State, varargin{:});
else
    gui_mainfcn(gui_State, varargin{:});
end
function AudioDisplay_OpeningFcn(hObject, eventdata, handles, varargin)
handles.output = hObject;
handles.r = hObject;
backgroundImage = importdata('leaf.jpg');
axes(handles.axes2);
image(backgroundImage)
set(handles.figure1,'CloseRequestFcn',@closeGUI);
guidata(hObject, handles);
global flag;
global FClose;
flag = 1;
function varargout = AudioDisplay_OutputFcn(hObject, eventdata, handles) 
varargout{1} = handles.output;
function pushbutton1_Callback(hObject, eventdata, handles)
global flag;
global FClose;
handles.r = audiorecorder(8000,16,1);
flag = 1;
FClose = 1;
StopExe = 0;
buffSize = 100000;
buffer1(1:buffSize,1) = 0;
while(1)
     while(~flag);
        pause(0.1);
        if(~FClose)
            pause(0.01)
            close AudioDisplay;
            StopExe = 1;
            break;
        else
        break;
        end
    end
    if(flag)
 
        recordblocking(handles.r,0.1);
        buff = getaudiodata(handles.r,'int16');
        [n m] = size(buff);
        buffer1(1:n,1) = buff(1:n,1);
        buffer1(n + 1  : buffSize,1) = buffer1(1 : (buffSize) - n,1);
        axes(handles.axes1)
        plot(buffer1);
        guidata(hObject,handles);
        if(~FClose)
            pause(.1);
            close AudioDisplay;      
            break;
        end
    end
    if(StopExe)
        break;
    end
end
function pushbutton2_Callback(hObject, eventdata, handles)
global flag;
flag = 0;
function pushbutton3_Callback(hObject, eventdata, handles)
global FClose;
FClose = 0;
function closeGUI(src,evnt)
global FClose;
FClose  = 0;

on 25 Aug 2010 at 1:34 am 13sweety

hy…
can anyone help me out..m new in matlab
i m writng a code for motion detention,i have three buttons in ma gui one is start and other is stop,close….
by presing stop m unable to stop my curntly ruinng video,and by pressing close i am unable to close my GUi…..
wot to dooo
i have tried…
closeall;
delet(fig);
bt nt wrkng….

blinkdagger