MATLAB: Limit time with tic toc

The program will has 5 different levels of difficulties which correspond to a number of seconds the use has to enter an answer. how i do that with tic toc function?

X=floor(10*rand(1));
Y=floor(10*rand(1));
format short
formatSpec='Vad blir: %2f x %4f \n' ;
tic
fprintf(formatSpec,X,Y)
riktigt_svar=X*Y;
Ditt_Svar=input('Svar:');
t=toc
pause(0.5);
if Ditt_Svar == riktigt_svar
   msgbox('Right answer')
else 
    if Ditt_Svar ~= riktigt_svar
          errordlg(['Right answer is',num2str(riktigt_svar)],'Error')
    end 
end

Best Answer

input() is a blocking function, and there is no good way to timeout on it in MATLAB. The only alternative is to use inputdlg() and use a timer to close it after a specific number of seconds. See the answer to this question: https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/96229-how-can-i-have-a-dialog-box-or-user-prompt-with-a-time-out-period

Here is a short version of the code on that question

f1 = findall(groot, 'type', 'figure');
t = timer('TimerFcn', {@closeit f1}, 'StartDelay', 3);
start(t);
value = inputdlg('myPrompt', 'myTitle');
value = str2double(value{1});
function closeit(obj, ~, f1)
    f2 = findall(0, 'Type', 'figure');
    fnew = setdiff(f2, f1);
    if ishandle(fnew)
        close(fnew);
    end
    stop(obj)
    delete(obj);
end

Related Solutions

MATLAB: How to have a dialog box or user prompt with a time-out period

Currently, there is no built-in command in MATLAB that includes a time-out period for the dialog/input prompt.

As a workaround, you can use the TIMER function to close the dialog at time-out. An example is provided below.

function varargout = timeoutDlg(dlg, delay, varargin)
% Dialog function with timeout property
% dlg is a handle to the dialog function to be called
% delay is the length of the delay in seconds
% other input arguments as required by the dialog
% EXAMPLE FUNCTION-CALL
% To display an input dialog box (REFER MATLAB HELP DOC) with a 
% timeout = 6 second say, the function call would be:
%
% [matrix_size_value, colormap_string] = timeoutdlg(@inputdlg, 6, ...
%                                {'Enter matrix size:','Enter colormap name:'}, ...
%                                'Input for peaks function', 1, {'20','hsv'})
% Setup a timer to close the dialog in a moment
f1 = findall(0, 'Type', 'figures');
t = timer('TimerFcn', {@closeit f1}, 'StartDelay', delay);
start(t);
% Call the dialog
retvals = dlg(varargin{:});
if numel(retvals) == nargout
      varargout = retvals(:);
else
      varargout = cell(1, nargout);
end
% Delete the timer
if strcmp(t.Running, 'on')
       stop(t);
end
delete(t);
function closeit(src, event, f1)
disp('Time out!');
f2 = findall(0, 'Type', 'figure');
fnew = setdiff(f2, f1);
if ishandle(fnew);
      close(fnew);
end

MATLAB: How can I create a timer

Depends on how you are taking input from the user. Here are a couple ideas:

(1) tic toc

Use "tic" to start the timer just before you give the user the question. After the person has answered the question, you can add something like this:

tElapsed=toc;
if tElapsed>tmax
  display('You took too long to answer.')
  % Mark question as wrong

end

(2) uicontrol

I don't know the details of this (just looked through the help for a bit), but you can use uiwait(f,TL) to wait until figure f is closed of TL seconds has elapsed. So maybe you could do something like this?

ans=0;
f=figure;
h=uicontrol('String','Test'); % Put something in this line so that when the button is pressed, it closes figure f and sets ans to something non-zero.
uiwait(f,10);
close(f)
if ans==0
  display('You took too long')
  % Mark question as wrong
end

Best Answer

Related Solutions

MATLAB: How to have a dialog box or user prompt with a time-out period

MATLAB: How can I create a timer

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