Rectangle Properties
Rectangle appearance and behavior
Rectangle properties control the appearance and behavior of a rectangle object. By changing property values, you can modify certain aspects of the rectangle. Use dot notation to query and set properties.
h = rectangle; w = h.LineWidth; h.LineWidth = 3;
Color and Styling
FaceColor
— Fill color
"none"
(default) | RGB triplet | hexadecimal color code | "r"
| "g"
| "b"
| ...
Fill color, specified as an RGB triplet, a hexadecimal color code, a color name, or a short name.
For a custom color, specify an RGB triplet or a hexadecimal color code.
An RGB triplet is a three-element row vector whose elements specify the intensities of the red, green, and blue components of the color. The intensities must be in the range
[0,1]
, for example,[0.4 0.6 0.7]
.A hexadecimal color code is a string scalar or character vector that starts with a hash symbol (
#
) followed by three or six hexadecimal digits, which can range from0
toF
. The values are not case sensitive. Therefore, the color codes"#FF8800"
,"#ff8800"
,"#F80"
, and"#f80"
are equivalent.
Alternatively, you can specify some common colors by name. This table lists the named color options, the equivalent RGB triplets, and hexadecimal color codes.
Color Name | Short Name | RGB Triplet | Hexadecimal Color Code | Appearance |
---|---|---|---|---|
"red" | "r" | [1 0 0] | "#FF0000" | |
"green" | "g" | [0 1 0] | "#00FF00" | |
"blue" | "b" | [0 0 1] | "#0000FF" | |
"cyan"
| "c" | [0 1 1] | "#00FFFF" | |
"magenta" | "m" | [1 0 1] | "#FF00FF" | |
"yellow" | "y" | [1 1 0] | "#FFFF00" | |
"black" | "k" | [0 0 0] | "#000000" | |
"white" | "w" | [1 1 1] | "#FFFFFF" | |
"none" | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable | No color |
Here are the RGB triplets and hexadecimal color codes for the default colors MATLAB® uses in many types of plots.
RGB Triplet | Hexadecimal Color Code | Appearance |
---|---|---|
[0 0.4470 0.7410] | "#0072BD" | |
[0.8500 0.3250 0.0980] | "#D95319" | |
[0.9290 0.6940 0.1250] | "#EDB120" | |
[0.4940 0.1840 0.5560] | "#7E2F8E" | |
[0.4660 0.6740 0.1880] | "#77AC30" | |
[0.3010 0.7450 0.9330] | "#4DBEEE" | |
[0.6350 0.0780 0.1840] | "#A2142F" |
Example: "blue"
Example: [0
0 1]
Example: "#0000FF"
EdgeColor
— Outline color
[0 0 0]
(default) | RGB triplet | hexadecimal color code | 'r'
| 'g'
| 'b'
| ...
Outline color, specified as an RGB triplet, a hexadecimal color code, a color name, or a
short name. The default value of [0 0 0]
corresponds to black.
For a custom color, specify an RGB triplet or a hexadecimal color code.
An RGB triplet is a three-element row vector whose elements specify the intensities of the red, green, and blue components of the color. The intensities must be in the range
[0,1]
, for example,[0.4 0.6 0.7]
.A hexadecimal color code is a string scalar or character vector that starts with a hash symbol (
#
) followed by three or six hexadecimal digits, which can range from0
toF
. The values are not case sensitive. Therefore, the color codes"#FF8800"
,"#ff8800"
,"#F80"
, and"#f80"
are equivalent.
Alternatively, you can specify some common colors by name. This table lists the named color options, the equivalent RGB triplets, and hexadecimal color codes.
Color Name | Short Name | RGB Triplet | Hexadecimal Color Code | Appearance |
---|---|---|---|---|
"red" | "r" | [1 0 0] | "#FF0000" | |
"green" | "g" | [0 1 0] | "#00FF00" | |
"blue" | "b" | [0 0 1] | "#0000FF" | |
"cyan"
| "c" | [0 1 1] | "#00FFFF" | |
"magenta" | "m" | [1 0 1] | "#FF00FF" | |
"yellow" | "y" | [1 1 0] | "#FFFF00" | |
"black" | "k" | [0 0 0] | "#000000" | |
"white" | "w" | [1 1 1] | "#FFFFFF" | |
"none" | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not applicable | No color |
Here are the RGB triplets and hexadecimal color codes for the default colors MATLAB uses in many types of plots.
RGB Triplet | Hexadecimal Color Code | Appearance |
---|---|---|
[0 0.4470 0.7410] | "#0072BD" | |
[0.8500 0.3250 0.0980] | "#D95319" | |
[0.9290 0.6940 0.1250] | "#EDB120" | |
[0.4940 0.1840 0.5560] | "#7E2F8E" | |
[0.4660 0.6740 0.1880] | "#77AC30" | |
[0.3010 0.7450 0.9330] | "#4DBEEE" | |
[0.6350 0.0780 0.1840] | "#A2142F" |
Example: 'blue'
Example: [0 0 1]
Example: '#0000FF'
EdgeColorMode
— Control how EdgeColor
is set
"auto"
(default) | "manual"
Control how the EdgeColor
property is set, specified as one of these values:
"auto"
— MATLAB controls the value of theEdgeColor
property by using theSeriesIndex
property of theRectangle
object and theColorOrder
property of the axes."manual"
— You set the value of theEdgeColor
property directly, or indirectly as a function argument when you create theRectangle
object.
If you change the value of the EdgeColor
property manually,
MATLAB changes the value of the EdgeColorMode
property to
"manual"
.
FaceAlpha
— Fill color transparency
1
(default) | scalar in the range [0, 1]
Since R2024a
Fill color transparency, specified as a scalar in the range [0, 1]. A value of
1
is fully opaque and 0
is completely transparent.
Values between 0
and 1
are partially transparent.
LineStyle
— Line style
"-"
(default) | "--"
| ":"
| "-."
| "none"
Line style, specified as one of the options listed in this table.
Line Style | Description | Resulting Line |
---|---|---|
"-" | Solid line |
|
"--" | Dashed line |
|
":" | Dotted line |
|
"-." | Dash-dotted line |
|
"none" | No line | No line |
LineWidth
— Line width
0.5
(default) | positive value
Line width, specified as a positive value in point units.
Example: 0.75
SeriesIndex
— Series index
"none"
(default) | positive whole number
Since R2023b
Series index, specified as positive whole number or "none"
. This
property is useful for reassigning the outline colors of Rectangle
objects so that they match the colors of other objects.
If the SeriesIndex
value is a number, MATLAB uses that number to calculate an index for assigning the outline color when you
call the rectangle
function. The index refers to the rows of the array
stored in the ColorOrder
property of the axes. Any objects in the axes
that have the same SeriesIndex
number will have the same color.
A SeriesIndex
value of "none"
corresponds to a
neutral color that does not participate in the indexing scheme.
How Manual Color Assignment Overrides SeriesIndex
Behavior
To manually control the outline color, set the EdgeColor
property
of the Rectangle
object to a color value, such as a color name or RGB
triplet.
When you manually set the outline color of a rectangle, MATLAB does not use automatic color selection for that object, and it allows your
color to persist, regardless of the value of the SeriesIndex
property.
The EdgeColorMode
property indicates whether the color has been set
manually (by you) or automatically. A value of "manual"
indicates manual
selection, and a value of "auto"
indicates automatic selection.
To enable automatic selection, set the SeriesIndex
property to a
positive whole number, and set the EdgeColorMode
property to
"auto"
.
In some cases, MATLAB sets the SeriesIndex
property to 0
,
which also disables automatic color selection.
Curvature
— Amount of horizontal and vertical curvature
[0 0]
(default) | two-element vector | scalar
Amount of horizontal and vertical curvature, specified as a two element vector of the
form [x y]
or a scalar value. Use this property to vary the shape of the
rectangle from rectangular to ellipsoidal. The horizontal curvature is the fraction of the
width that is curved along the top and bottom edges. The vertical curvature is the fraction of
the height that is curved along the left and right edges.
To use different horizontal and vertical curvatures, specify a two-element vector of the form
[x y]
. Thex
element determines the horizontal curvature and they
element determines the vertical curvature. Specifyx
andy
as values between 0 (no curvature) and 1 (maximum curvature). For example, a value of[0 0]
creates a rectangle with square edges and value of[1 1]
creates an ellipse.To use the same curvature for the horizontal and vertical edges, specify a scalar value in the range
[0,1]
. The shorter dimension determines the length of the curvature.
Example: [0.5 0.6]
Example: 0.75
AlignVertexCenters
— Sharp vertical and horizontal lines
'off'
(default) | on/off logical value
Sharp vertical and horizontal lines, specified as 'on'
or
'off'
, or as numeric or logical 1
(true
) or 0
(false
). A
value of 'on'
is equivalent to true, and 'off'
is
equivalent to false
. Thus, you can use the value of this property as
a logical value. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState
.
Value | Description | Appearance |
---|---|---|
'on' | Sharpen vertical and horizontal lines to eliminate an uneven appearance. |
|
'off' | Do not sharpen vertical or horizontal lines. The lines might appear uneven in thickness or color. |
|
If the associated figure has a GraphicsSmoothing
property set to 'on'
and a Renderer
property set to
'opengl'
, then the figure applies a smoothing technique to plots.
In some cases, this smoothing technique can cause vertical and horizontal lines to
appear uneven in thickness or color. Use the AlignVertexCenters
property to eliminate the uneven appearance.
Note
You must have a graphics card that supports this feature. To see if the feature is
supported, call the rendererinfo
function. If it is supported,
rendererinfo
returns value of 1
for
info.Details.SupportsAlignVertexCenters
.
Position
Position
— Size and location of rectangle
[0 0 1 1]
(default) | four-element vector
Size and location of the rectangle, specified as a four-element vector of the form
[x y width height]
. Specify the values in data units. The
x
and y
elements define the coordinate for the
lower-left corner of the rectangle. The width
and height
elements define the dimensions of the rectangle.
Example: [0.5 0.5 0.3 0.4]
Interactivity
Visible
— State of visibility
"on"
(default) | on/off logical value
State of visibility, specified as "on"
or "off"
, or as
numeric or logical 1
(true
) or
0
(false
). A value of "on"
is equivalent to true
, and "off"
is equivalent to
false
. Thus, you can use the value of this property as a logical
value. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState
.
"on"
— Display the object."off"
— Hide the object without deleting it. You still can access the properties of an invisible object.
ContextMenu
— Context menu
empty GraphicsPlaceholder
array (default) | ContextMenu
object
Context menu, specified as a ContextMenu
object. Use this property
to display a context menu when you right-click the object. Create the context menu using
the uicontextmenu
function.
Note
If the PickableParts
property is set to
'none'
or if the HitTest
property is set
to 'off'
, then the context menu does not appear.
Selected
— Selection state
'off'
(default) | on/off logical value
Selection state, specified as 'on'
or 'off'
, or as
numeric or logical 1
(true
) or
0
(false
). A value of 'on'
is equivalent to true, and 'off'
is equivalent to
false
. Thus, you can use the value of this property as a logical
value. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState
.
'on'
— Selected. If you click the object when in plot edit mode, then MATLAB sets itsSelected
property to'on'
. If theSelectionHighlight
property also is set to'on'
, then MATLAB displays selection handles around the object.'off'
— Not selected.
SelectionHighlight
— Display of selection handles
'on'
(default) | on/off logical value
Display of selection handles when selected, specified as 'on'
or
'off'
, or as numeric or logical 1
(true
) or 0
(false
). A
value of 'on'
is equivalent to true, and 'off'
is
equivalent to false
. Thus, you can use the value of this property as
a logical value. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState
.
'on'
— Display selection handles when theSelected
property is set to'on'
.'off'
— Never display selection handles, even when theSelected
property is set to'on'
.
Clipping
— Clipping of object to axes limits
'on'
(default) | on/off logical value
Clipping of the object to the axes limits, specified as 'on'
or
'off'
, or as numeric or logical 1
(true
) or 0
(false
). A
value of 'on'
is equivalent to true, and 'off'
is
equivalent to false
. Thus, you can use the value of this property as
a logical value. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState
.
A value of
'on'
clips parts of the object that are outside the axes limits.A value of
'off'
displays the entire object, even if parts of it appear outside the axes limits. Parts of the object might appear outside the axes limits if you create a plot, sethold on
, freeze the axis scaling, and then create the object so that it is larger than the original plot.
The Clipping
property of the axes that contains the object must be set to
'on'
. Otherwise, this property has no effect. For more
information about the clipping behavior, see the Clipping
property of the
axes.
Callbacks
ButtonDownFcn
— Mouse-click callback
''
(default) | function handle | cell array | character vector
Mouse-click callback, specified as one of these values:
Function handle
Cell array containing a function handle and additional arguments
Character vector that is a valid MATLAB command or function, which is evaluated in the base workspace (not recommended)
Use this property to execute code when you click the object. If you specify this property using a function handle, then MATLAB passes two arguments to the callback function when executing the callback:
Clicked object — Access properties of the clicked object from within the callback function.
Event data — Empty argument. Replace it with the tilde character (
~
) in the function definition to indicate that this argument is not used.
For more information on how to use function handles to define callback functions, see Create Callbacks for Graphics Objects.
Note
If the PickableParts
property is set to 'none'
or
if the HitTest
property is set to 'off'
,
then this callback does not execute.
CreateFcn
— Creation function
''
(default) | function handle | cell array | character vector
Object creation function, specified as one of these values:
Function handle.
Cell array in which the first element is a function handle. Subsequent elements in the cell array are the arguments to pass to the callback function.
Character vector containing a valid MATLAB expression (not recommended). MATLAB evaluates this expression in the base workspace.
For more information about specifying a callback as a function handle, cell array, or character vector, see Create Callbacks for Graphics Objects.
This property specifies a callback function to execute when MATLAB creates the object. MATLAB initializes all property values before executing the CreateFcn
callback. If you do not specify the CreateFcn
property, then MATLAB executes a default creation function.
Setting the CreateFcn
property on an existing component has no effect.
If you specify this property as a function handle or cell array, you can access the object that is being created using the first argument of the callback function. Otherwise, use the gcbo
function to access the object.
DeleteFcn
— Deletion function
''
(default) | function handle | cell array | character vector
Object deletion function, specified as one of these values:
Function handle.
Cell array in which the first element is a function handle. Subsequent elements in the cell array are the arguments to pass to the callback function.
Character vector containing a valid MATLAB expression (not recommended). MATLAB evaluates this expression in the base workspace.
For more information about specifying a callback as a function handle, cell array, or character vector, see Create Callbacks for Graphics Objects.
This property specifies a callback function to execute when MATLAB deletes the object. MATLAB executes the DeleteFcn
callback before destroying the
properties of the object. If you do not specify the DeleteFcn
property, then MATLAB executes a default deletion function.
If you specify this property as a function handle or cell array, you can access the object that is being deleted using the first argument of the callback function. Otherwise, use the gcbo
function to access the object.
Callback Execution Control
Interruptible
— Callback interruption
'on'
(default) | on/off logical value
Callback interruption, specified as 'on'
or 'off'
, or as
numeric or logical 1
(true
) or
0
(false
). A value of 'on'
is equivalent to true
, and 'off'
is equivalent to
false
. Thus, you can use the value of this property as a logical
value. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState
.
This property determines if a running callback can be interrupted. There are two callback states to consider:
The running callback is the currently executing callback.
The interrupting callback is a callback that tries to interrupt the running callback.
MATLAB determines callback interruption behavior whenever it executes a command that
processes the callback queue. These commands include drawnow
, figure
, uifigure
, getframe
, waitfor
, and pause
.
If the running callback does not contain one of these commands, then no interruption occurs. MATLAB first finishes executing the running callback, and later executes the interrupting callback.
If the running callback does contain one of these commands, then the
Interruptible
property of the object that owns the running
callback determines if the interruption occurs:
If the value of
Interruptible
is'off'
, then no interruption occurs. Instead, theBusyAction
property of the object that owns the interrupting callback determines if the interrupting callback is discarded or added to the callback queue.If the value of
Interruptible
is'on'
, then the interruption occurs. The next time MATLAB processes the callback queue, it stops the execution of the running callback and executes the interrupting callback. After the interrupting callback completes, MATLAB then resumes executing the running callback.
Note
Callback interruption and execution behave differently in these situations:
If the interrupting callback is a
DeleteFcn
,CloseRequestFcn
, orSizeChangedFcn
callback, then the interruption occurs regardless of theInterruptible
property value.If the running callback is currently executing the
waitfor
function, then the interruption occurs regardless of theInterruptible
property value.If the interrupting callback is owned by a
Timer
object, then the callback executes according to schedule regardless of theInterruptible
property value.
BusyAction
— Callback queuing
'queue'
(default) | 'cancel'
Callback queuing, specified as 'queue'
or 'cancel'
. The BusyAction
property determines how MATLAB handles the execution of interrupting callbacks. There are two callback states to consider:
The running callback is the currently executing callback.
The interrupting callback is a callback that tries to interrupt the running callback.
The BusyAction
property determines callback queuing behavior only
when both of these conditions are met:
Under these conditions, the BusyAction
property of the
object that owns the interrupting callback determines how MATLAB handles the interrupting callback. These are possible values of the
BusyAction
property:
'queue'
— Puts the interrupting callback in a queue to be processed after the running callback finishes execution.'cancel'
— Does not execute the interrupting callback.
PickableParts
— Ability to capture mouse clicks
'visible'
(default) | 'all'
| 'none'
Ability to capture mouse clicks, specified as one of these values:
'visible'
— Capture mouse clicks when visible. TheVisible
property must be set to'on'
and you must click a part of theRectangle
object that has a defined color. You cannot click a part that has an associated color property set to'none'
. TheHitTest
property determines if theRectangle
object responds to the click or if an ancestor does.'all'
— Capture mouse clicks regardless of visibility. TheVisible
property can be set to'on'
or'off'
and you can click a part of theRectangle
object that has no color. TheHitTest
property determines if theRectangle
object responds to the click or if an ancestor does.'none'
— Cannot capture mouse clicks. Clicking theRectangle
object passes the click through it to the object below it in the current view of the figure window. TheHitTest
property has no effect.
HitTest
— Response to captured mouse clicks
'on'
(default) | on/off logical value
Response to captured mouse clicks, specified as 'on'
or
'off'
, or as numeric or logical 1
(true
) or 0
(false
). A
value of 'on'
is equivalent to true, and 'off'
is
equivalent to false
. Thus, you can use the value of this property as
a logical value. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState
.
'on'
— Trigger theButtonDownFcn
callback of theRectangle
object. If you have defined theContextMenu
property, then invoke the context menu.'off'
— Trigger the callbacks for the nearest ancestor of theRectangle
object that meets one of these conditions:HitTest
property is set to'on'
.PickableParts
property is set to a value that enables the ancestor to capture mouse clicks.
Note
The PickableParts
property determines if
the Rectangle
object can capture
mouse clicks. If it cannot, then the HitTest
property
has no effect.
BeingDeleted
— Deletion status
on/off logical value
This property is read-only.
Deletion status, returned as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState
.
MATLAB sets the BeingDeleted
property to
'on'
when the DeleteFcn
callback begins
execution. The BeingDeleted
property remains set to
'on'
until the component object no longer exists.
Check the value of the BeingDeleted
property to verify that the object is not about to be deleted before querying or modifying it.
Parent/Child
Parent
— Parent
Axes
object | Group
object | Transform
object
Parent, specified as an Axes
, Group
,
or Transform
object.
Children
— Children
empty GraphicsPlaceholder
array
The object has no children. You cannot set this property.
HandleVisibility
— Visibility of object handle
"on"
(default) | "off"
| "callback"
Visibility of the object handle in the Children
property
of the parent, specified as one of these values:
"on"
— Object handle is always visible."off"
— Object handle is invisible at all times. This option is useful for preventing unintended changes by another function. SetHandleVisibility
to"off"
to temporarily hide the handle during the execution of that function."callback"
— Object handle is visible from within callbacks or functions invoked by callbacks, but not from within functions invoked from the command line. This option blocks access to the object at the command line, but permits callback functions to access it.
If the object is not listed in the Children
property of the parent, then
functions that obtain object handles by searching the object hierarchy or querying
handle properties cannot return it. Examples of such functions include the
get
, findobj
, gca
, gcf
, gco
, newplot
, cla
, clf
, and close
functions.
Hidden object handles are still valid. Set the root ShowHiddenHandles
property to "on"
to list all object handles regardless of their
HandleVisibility
property setting.
Identifiers
Type
— Type of graphics object
'rectangle'
This property is read-only.
Type of graphics object, returned as 'rectangle'
. Use this property to
find all objects of a given type within a plotting hierarchy, for example, searching for the
type using findobj
.
Tag
— Object identifier
''
(default) | character vector | string scalar
Object identifier, specified as a character vector or string scalar. You can specify a unique Tag
value to serve as an identifier for an object. When you need access to the object elsewhere in your code, you can use the findobj
function to search for the object based on the Tag
value.
UserData
— User data
[]
(default) | array
User data, specified as any MATLAB array. For example, you can specify a scalar, vector, matrix, cell array, character array, table, or structure. Use this property to store arbitrary data on an object.
If you are working in App Designer, create public or private properties in the app to share data instead of using the UserData
property. For more information, see Share Data Within App Designer Apps.
Version History
Introduced before R2006aR2024a: Control fill color transparency with FaceAlpha
property
Control the fill color transparency of a rectangle by setting the FaceAlpha
property
to a value between 0
(completely transparent) and 1
(opaque).
R2023b: Control automatic color selection with the SeriesIndex
property
Control how Rectangle
objects vary in color by setting the
SeriesIndex
property. This property is useful when you want to
match the colors of different objects in the axes.
R2020a: UIContextMenu
property is not recommended
Setting or getting UIContextMenu
property is not recommended. Instead,
use the ContextMenu
property, which accepts the same type of input and behaves the same way as the
UIContextMenu
property.
There are no plans to remove the UIContextMenu
property, but it is no
longer listed when you call the set
, get
, or
properties
functions on the Rectangle
object.
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