Why findobj cannot find a TexBox (annotation) object?

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While HandleVisibility property of a TextBox object is 'on' by default,
fig = figure
txb = annotation('textbox',[0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5],'String','bar hoo')
class(txb)
ans =
'matlab.graphics.shape.TextBox'
txb.Type %
ans = 'textboxshape'
txb.HandleVisibility
ans = 'on'
findobj cannot find this txb.
findobj(fig,'Type','textboxshape')
ans =
0×0 empty GraphicsPlaceholder array.
Why is this and how can I find this txb?

Accepted Answer

Cris LaPierre
Cris LaPierre on 4 Dec 2020
Edited: Cris LaPierre on 4 Dec 2020
Try using the object handle (txb) directly.
plot(1:10)
str = 'Straight Line Plot from 1 to 10';
txb = annotation('textbox',[.2 .5 .3 .3],'String',str,'FitBoxToText','on');
% Use object handle
findobj(txb)
ans =
TextBox (Straight Line Plot from 1 to 10) with properties: String: 'Straight Line Plot from 1 to 10' FontName: 'Helvetica' FontSize: 10 FontWeight: 'normal' Color: [0 0 0] BackgroundColor: 'none' EdgeColor: [0 0 0] LineStyle: '-' LineWidth: 0.5000 Position: [0.2000 0.5000 0.3000 0.3000] Units: 'normalized' Show all properties
If you want to instead find the annotation without using the object handle, use findall instead.
findall(gcf,'Type','textboxshape')
ans =
TextBox (Straight Line Plot from 1 to 10) with properties: String: 'Straight Line Plot from 1 to 10' FontName: 'Helvetica' FontSize: 10 FontWeight: 'normal' Color: [0 0 0] BackgroundColor: 'none' EdgeColor: [0 0 0] LineStyle: '-' LineWidth: 0.5000 Position: [0.2000 0.5000 0.3000 0.3000] Units: 'normalized' Show all properties
  4 Comments
Cris LaPierre
Cris LaPierre on 4 Dec 2020
Good point. The underlying issue was handle visibility, as you pointed out below. I'll update my response to remove any confusion.

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More Answers (1)

Kouichi C. Nakamura
Kouichi C. Nakamura on 4 Dec 2020
It turned out that TextBox txb is a child of an AnnotationPane or 'matlab.graphics.shape.internal.AnnotationPane' object. And HandleVisibility of AnnotationPane objects are 'off' by default, hiding the handle of TextBox txb.
So you need to set HandleVisibility of AnnotationPane objects to 'on' first, and then use findobj.
set(findobj(allchild(fig),'Type','AnnotationPane'),...
'HandleVisibility','on')
findobj(fig,'Type','textboxshape') % WORKS!
ans =
TextBox (bar hoo) with properties:
String: 'bar hoo'
FontName: 'Helvetica'
FontSize: 10
FontWeight: 'normal'
Color: [0 0 0]
BackgroundColor: 'none'
EdgeColor: [0 0 0]
LineStyle: '-'
LineWidth: 0.5000
Position: [0.5000 0.5000 0.5000 0.5000]
Units: 'normalized'

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