Asking a question with specific format

I need to ask a question that is formatted like this:

*As a dialog box:

Enter the resistance between node __ and node ___ (where the node number is changing each time the question is asked):

If parallel enter resistance 1:

Resistance 2:

I need all of this as one dialog box, but split up becuase I need to detemine if the user leaves certain boxes empty in the question.

I have tried several options but have been unable to split into different elements of a cell and have a changing variable in the same dialog box...

Thank you in advance!!

[Rik]

I don't fully understand what you mean. Can you make an example in paint of what you mean?

[Emma Sellers]

while B < nodes
                    B = B+1;
                    Resistances =inputdlg(['Enter resistance between ',num2str(A),' and ',num2str(B),' or click Ok for infinite resistance.','If resistors in parallel share nodes, Resistance 1:','Resistance 2:']); %changed
                    
                  if isempty(Resistances(1,2))
                  
                        if strcmp(Resistances, {''}) % changed... when a user clicks "okay", "Resistances" would have an empty cell
                            ResistanceMat(A,B) = inf % added... the corresponding element in the matrix is converted to inf, without this it converted to NaN which is not usable in the equation
                            ResistanceMat(B,A) = inf % added
                        else
                             ResistanceMat(A,B) = str2double(Resistances)
                             ResistanceMat(B,A) = str2double(Resistances)
                        end

[Emma Sellers]

The question there that is titled "Resistances"

[Emma Sellers]

But the dialog box comes out all wrong and does not split it up the way I want it.

[Rik]

It is probably easier to build a GUI yourself instead of hacking inputdlg. That is why I asked for a visual example.

[Image Analyst]

A custom user interface could certainly look nicer, but it's not hard to use inputdlg(). I gave a snippet below that is easily adapted and fairly robust. It's practically done except for using sprintf() to write the node numbers into the user prompt string.

Answer 1

[Image Analyst]

See this snippet and adapt as needed:

% Define default values:
resistances = [1, 2, 3];
for k = 1 : length(resistances)
	defaultValue{k} = num2str(resistances(k));
end
% Ask user for two floating point numbers.
titleBar = 'Enter Resistance';
userPrompt = {'Enter the resistance between node __ and node ___', 'If parallel, Enter resistance 1 : ', 'If parallel, Enter resistance 2: '};
caUserInput = inputdlg(userPrompt, titleBar, 1, defaultValue);
if isempty(caUserInput),return,end % Bail out if they clicked Cancel.
% Convert to floating point from string.
resistance1 = str2double(caUserInput{1})
resistance2 = str2double(caUserInput{2})
resistance3 = str2double(caUserInput{3})
% Check resistance1 for validity.
if isnan(resistance1)
	% They didn't enter a number.
	% They clicked Cancel, or entered a character, symbols, or something else not allowed.
	% Convert the default from a string and stick that into usersValue1.
	resistance1 = str2double(defaultValue{1});
	message = sprintf('I said it had to be a number.\nTry replacing the user.\nI will use %.2f and continue.', resistance1);
	uiwait(warndlg(message));
end
% Do the same for resistance2 - check for a valid number.
% Check resistance2 for validity.
if isnan(resistance2)
	% They didn't enter a number.
	% They clicked Cancel, or entered a character, symbols, or something else not allowed.
	% Convert the default from a string and stick that into usersValue2.
	resistance2 = str2double(defaultValue{2});
	message = sprintf('I said it had to be a number.\nTry replacing the user.\nI will use %.2f and continue.', resistance2);
	uiwait(warndlg(message));
end
% Do the same for resistance3 - check for a valid number.
% Check resistance3 for validity.
if isnan(resistance3)
	% They didn't enter a number.
	% They clicked Cancel, or entered a character, symbols, or something else not allowed.
	% Convert the default from a string and stick that into usersValue2.
	resistance3 = str2double(defaultValue{2});
	message = sprintf('I said it had to be a number.\nTry replacing the user.\nI will use %.2f and continue.', resistance3);
	uiwait(warndlg(message));
end