MATLAB: Make the XTickLabel mouse sensitive in UIAxes

Question

hi

i would like to make the XTickLabel entries (or Y or Z dimension) mouse sensitive in UIAxes. pressing a mouse left on a label should callback a function.

thanks a lot !!!

mat

Answer 1

This demo uses a ButtonDownFcn function on the axes to detect when the left mouse button selects an x-tick label. The selection updates the axis title. Requires Matlab r2020b or later.

% Create demo UI Figure
fig = uifigure();
ax = uiaxes(fig);
ax.ButtonDownFcn = @axisButtonDownFcn;
function axisButtonDownFcn(ax, event)
    % Responds to mouse click on axes.  If click is above the lower y-axis
    % there is no action. If the click is on or around the x-axis ticks, 
    % the nearest tick is located. Only accepts left mouse clicks.
    
    % Only accept left mouse clicks
    if event.Button ~= 1
        return
    end
    
    % Only accepts clicks lower than min(ylim)
    if event.IntersectionPoint(2) > min(ax.YLim)
        return
    end
    
    % Get closest x-tick to the click
    [~, tickIdx] = min(abs(ax.XTick - event.IntersectionPoint(1)));
    tickSelected = ax.XTick(tickIdx);
    
    % Update axis title to indicat tick selected
    ax.Title.String = sprintf('x=%.4g selected', tickSelected);
end