How to use set() in a loop?

Hi! I have lots of lots of images in a figure and I want to change them between being visible and invisible. My problem is that I don't know how to change severals of images in a loop. Now I have to type in set(_name1_,'Visible','off') for every image. I can't find a way to change the name in set(_name1_). What can I do?

Answer 1

[per isakson]

Try something like this:

    name_list = { 'name1', 'name2', 'name3', .... }; % row vector

    for name = name_list
       image_handle = findobj( 'PropertyName', name{1} ) % thanks to Daniel
       set( image_handle, 'Visible', 'off') 
    end

The trick is to create name_list and that the names are unique

--- CONT. ---

Doc says:

himage = imshow(...) returns the handle to the image object created by imshow.

Thus, himage is a handle to an image object and 'Visible' is a property of a image object. Try

    imh8 = imshow('Bar78.png',bar8);
    set( imh8, 'Visible', 'off' )

I'm not sure this will do what you want, but ...

[Daniel Shub]

I don't think that will work. name{1} is a string (char array) with value 'name1', but set generally wants a double that is a handle to a graphics object. My guess is that you need an eval someplace.

[per isakson]

You are perfectly right! I added a line to the code.

[Daniel Shub]

I still don't see how this is going to work. It really depends on what name1, name2, etc are. I would also suggest something like sprintf to generate the names so Johan can see you do not need to type them all.

[Daniel Shub]

Somewhere Johan is going to do a loop and a variable naming scheme like imh8 and bar8 is going to probably cause him problems.

[per isakson]

@Daniel Obviously 'PropertyName' must match the PropertyValue, "name". Why do we care about Johans problem? I try give hints and point to the documentation, which I think is good. Sometimes coming up with a good search term is the real problem.

Answer 2

[Daniel Shub]

I believe your question is really: I created a bunch of variables called

name1
name2
name3

and now it is a nightmare to use them. This is also known as FAQ 4.6

Answer 3

[Johan]

Thank you for fast answers! I tried to use cell arrays like this but get error messages

for i=1:8
  Abar{i} = 1:i;
end

bar8 = axes('Units','Centimeters','Position',[6.98,1,0.5,1.11]);
imshow('Bar78.png',bar8);
Abar{8} = get(bar8,'children');

set(Abar{8}, 'Visible', 'off')

[Daniel Shub]

This should be an edit to your question and not an answer ...

[per isakson]

See my answer above

Answer 4

[Daniel Shub]

I am guessing a lot here, but what about something like

    for ibar = 1:8
      subplot(3, 3, ibar);
      bar(ibar) = imshow(['Bar7', num2str(ibar), '.png');
    end
    set(bar, 'Visible', 'off')