Changing the linestyles of individual lines in stackedplot subplots in AppDesigner.

Per the documentation page for StackedLineProperties, we can change the LineStyle for individual plots -- however, there doesn't seem to be any documentation for how one can edit the LineStyle for individual lines within subplots. It's possible to accomplish this in regular MATLAB using NodeChildren as such:

However, while using this method in AppDesigner does update the property, the actual plot itself does not reflect the change:

ax_children = findobj(app.VolTrace.NodeChildren, 'Type','Axes');
before = app.VolTrace.NodeChildren(app.VolTrace.NodeChildren == ax_children(subplot_idx)).Children(idx)
set(app.VolTrace.NodeChildren(app.VolTrace.NodeChildren == ax_children(subplot_idx)).Children(idx), 'Color', app.neuron_info.getNeuronColor(neuron))
if strcmp(neuron(end),'L')
    set(app.VolTrace.NodeChildren(app.VolTrace.NodeChildren == ax_children(subplot_idx)).Children(idx), 'LineStyle', '--')
elseif strcmp(neuron(end),'R')
    set(app.VolTrace.NodeChildren(app.VolTrace.NodeChildren == ax_children(subplot_idx)).Children(idx), 'LineStyle', '-')
end
after = app.VolTrace.NodeChildren(app.VolTrace.NodeChildren == ax_children(subplot_idx)).Children(idx)

before =

Line (IL1DL) with properties:

Color: [0 0.4470 0.7410]

LineStyle: '-'

LineWidth: 0.5000

Marker: 'none'

MarkerSize: 6

MarkerFaceColor: 'none'

XData: [1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 … ]

YData: [1.5333 1.7333 1.3333 1.3333 1.6000 1.2000 1.6000 1.3333 1.2000 1.2000 1.2667 1.4000 1.2000 1.2667 1.3333 1.4667 1.2000 1.0667 1.2000 1.4000 1.1333 1.4000 1.4000 … ]

Show all properties

after =

Line (IL1DL) with properties:

Color: [0.9725 0.3529 0.2471]

LineStyle: '--'

LineWidth: 0.5000

Marker: 'none'

MarkerSize: 6

MarkerFaceColor: 'none'

XData: [1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 … ]

YData: [1.5333 1.7333 1.3333 1.3333 1.6000 1.2000 1.6000 1.3333 1.2000 1.2000 1.2667 1.4000 1.2000 1.2667 1.3333 1.4667 1.2000 1.0667 1.2000 1.4000 1.1333 1.4000 1.4000 … ]

Show all properties

Any way to get this to work in AppDesigner?

[Walter Roberson]

drawnow() ?

[Kevin Rusch]

I've tried that too, and that didn't fix it either.

[Kevin Rusch]

@Walter Roberson -- something that may be worth noting though: If I use drawnow(), the properly formatted line is visible for a split seconds before being replaced with the unformatted line.

Answer 1

[Kevin Rusch]

I've managed to solve this (or, rather, work around the issue at the heart) by creating a property app.style_tracker that keeps track of both the number of subplots and the number of lines on each subplot, and stores each line's linestyle. Whenever the stackedplot updates, I then set my LineProperties equal to this property:

if isempty(app.color_tracker) || length(app.color_tracker) < subplot_idx || isempty(app.color_tracker{subplot_idx})

app.color_tracker{subplot_idx} = [target_color];

app.style_tracker{subplot_idx} = [{target_style}];

else

app.color_tracker{subplot_idx} = [app.color_tracker{subplot_idx}; target_color];

app.style_tracker{subplot_idx} = [app.style_tracker{subplot_idx}, target_style];

end

app.VolTrace.LineProperties(subplot_idx).LineStyle = app.style_tracker{subplot_idx};

app.VolTrace.LineProperties(subplot_idx).Color = app.color_tracker{subplot_idx};

While convoluted, that seems to be the only way to work around all of stackedplot's peculiarities.

Answer 2

[Kevin Holly]

I made an app to test this (see attached). I was able to replicate it in R2022b Update 5, but not R2023a. As Walter suggested, inserting a drawnow after the stackedplot is created and before changing the Linestyle, fixes the problem. Note, without the drawnow, the following error occurs:

Index exceeds the number of array elements. Index must not exceed 0.

Error in stackedplotChildren/PlotButtonPushed (line 18)

set(s.NodeChildren(4).Children(1),'Linestyle','--');

If you go to debug mode and then run the line, it works.

[Kevin Rusch]

Unfortunately this does not appear to be working for me. I added drawnow right after calling stackedplot(), and the issue persists:

I'll see if updating to R2023a fixes the issue.

[Kevin Rusch]

R2023a does not fix the issue. Maybe I'm missing something. Here is the function that gets executed when a neuron is added to the plot:

function update_browser(app, neuron, subplot)

if ~exist('subplot','var')

subplot = 1;

end

old_xlim = app.VolTrace.XLimits;

if ~isempty(app.VolTrace.DisplayVariables)

subplot_vars = app.VolTrace.DisplayVariables(subplot);

new_vars = [];

for n=1:size(app.VolTrace.DisplayVariables(subplot),2)

if ~strcmp(subplot_vars{n},'null')

new_vars = [string(new_vars),string(subplot_vars{n})];

end

end

new_vars = [new_vars,string(neuron)];

app.VolTrace.DisplayVariables(subplot) = {new_vars};

end

ax_children = findobj(app.VolTrace.NodeChildren, 'Type','Axes');

subplot_idx = size(app.VolTrace.DisplayVariables,2)-(subplot-1);

for n=1:(size(app.VolTrace.NodeChildren(app.VolTrace.NodeChildren == ax_children(subplot_idx)).Children,1))

if strcmp(app.VolTrace.NodeChildren(app.VolTrace.NodeChildren == ax_children(subplot_idx)).Children(n).DisplayName,neuron)

idx = n;

end

end

before = app.VolTrace.NodeChildren(app.VolTrace.NodeChildren == ax_children(subplot_idx)).Children(idx)

set(app.VolTrace.NodeChildren(app.VolTrace.NodeChildren == ax_children(subplot_idx)).Children(idx), 'Color', app.neuron_info.getNeuronColor(neuron))

if strcmp(neuron(end),'L')

set(app.VolTrace.NodeChildren(app.VolTrace.NodeChildren == ax_children(subplot_idx)).Children(idx), 'LineStyle', '--')

elseif strcmp(neuron(end),'R')

set(app.VolTrace.NodeChildren(app.VolTrace.NodeChildren == ax_children(subplot_idx)).Children(idx), 'LineStyle', '-')

end

after = app.VolTrace.NodeChildren(app.VolTrace.NodeChildren == ax_children(subplot_idx)).Children(idx)

app.VolTrace.XLimits = old_xlim;

end

I've tried adding drawnow before I edit the color and linestyle, but that did not work either.

[Kevin Holly]

Does it work if you go into debug mode and run the code line by line?

[Kevin Rusch]

It works up until the app.update_browser() function is finished. Then the line formatting is reset.

[Kevin Rusch]

Here's the plot, the code, and the log side by side, step by step: https://i.imgur.com/hkoRZFs.gif

[Kevin Holly]

There is no other functions or listeners that edit the line's format or recreates the plots?

Answer 3

[Seth Furman]

The correct way to set the line style of individual lines when using stackedplot is to set LineProperties(i) to an array of values, where i is the index of the subplot containing the line.

rng(0,"twister");
X = randi([0,10],[10,2]);
T1 = table(X,X);
s = stackedplot(T1);
s.LineProperties(2).LineStyle = ["-","--"];

The NodeChildren of a StackedLineChart is undocumented and modifications to line objects through NodeChildren will not persist.

[Kevin Rusch]

Absolutely. What complicated what would otherwise have been the straightforward solution to our problem was that under certain circumstances, LineProperties resets on draw when you change a single element within one of its properties, meaning that unless we reassign the entire Linestyle array at once, only the last change would persist. Hence why the only solution that ended up working was one that keeps track of changes and rewrites LineStyle with the saved value of every line within a subplot.

[Seth Furman]

Could you provide an example where "LineProperties resets on draw when you change a single element within one of its properties" so I can better understand your use case? Typically StackedLineChart tries to preserve LineProperties unless the underlying data changes (such as when the SourceTable property is modified).