(octave.info)Object Groups


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15.4.6 Object Groups
--------------------

A number of Octave high level plot functions return groups of other
graphics objects or they return graphics objects that have their
properties linked in such a way that changes to one of the properties
results in changes in the others.  A graphic object that groups other
objects is an ‘hggroup’

 -- : hggroup ()
 -- : hggroup (HAX)
 -- : hggroup (..., PROPERTY, VALUE, ...)
 -- : H = hggroup (...)
     Create handle graphics group object with axes parent HAX.

     If no parent is specified, the group is created in the current
     axes.

     Multiple property/value pairs may be specified for the hggroup, but
     they must appear in pairs.

     The optional return value H is a graphics handle to the created
     hggroup object.

     Programming Note: An hggroup is a way to group base graphics
     objects such as line objects or patch objects into a single unit
     which can react appropriately.  For example, the individual lines
     of a contour plot are collected into a single hggroup so that they
     can be made visible/invisible with a single command, ‘set
     (hg_handle, "visible", "off")’.

     See also: Note: addproperty, *note addlistener:
     XREFaddlistener.

   For example a simple use of a ‘hggroup’ might be

     x = 0:0.1:10;
     hg = hggroup ();
     plot (x, sin (x), "color", [1, 0, 0], "parent", hg);
     hold on
     plot (x, cos (x), "color", [0, 1, 0], "parent", hg);
     set (hg, "visible", "off");

which groups the two plots into a single object and controls their
visibility directly.  The default properties of an ‘hggroup’ are the
same as the set of common properties for the other graphics objects.
Additional properties can be added with the ‘addproperty’ function.

 -- : addproperty (NAME, H, TYPE)
 -- : addproperty (NAME, H, TYPE, ARG, ...)
     Create a new property named NAME in graphics object H.

     TYPE determines the type of the property to create.  ARGS usually
     contains the default value of the property, but additional
     arguments might be given, depending on the type of the property.

     The supported property types are:

     ‘string’
          A string property.  ARG contains the default string value.

     ‘any’
          An un-typed property.  This kind of property can hold any
          octave value.  ARGS contains the default value.

     ‘radio’
          A string property with a limited set of accepted values.  The
          first argument must be a string with all accepted values
          separated by a vertical bar (’|’).  The default value can be
          marked by enclosing it with a ’{’ ’}’ pair.  The default value
          may also be given as an optional second string argument.

     ‘boolean’
          A boolean property.  This property type is equivalent to a
          radio property with "on|off" as accepted values.  ARG contains
          the default property value.

     ‘double’
          A scalar double property.  ARG contains the default value.

     ‘handle’
          A handle property.  This kind of property holds the handle of
          a graphics object.  ARG contains the default handle value.
          When no default value is given, the property is initialized to
          the empty matrix.

     ‘data’
          A data (matrix) property.  ARG contains the default data
          value.  When no default value is given, the data is
          initialized to the empty matrix.

     ‘color’
          A color property.  ARG contains the default color value.  When
          no default color is given, the property is set to black.  An
          optional second string argument may be given to specify an
          additional set of accepted string values (like a radio
          property).

     TYPE may also be the concatenation of a core object type and a
     valid property name for that object type.  The property created
     then has the same characteristics as the referenced property (type,
     possible values, hidden state...).  This allows one to clone an
     existing property into the graphics object H.

     Examples:

          addproperty ("my_property", gcf, "string", "a string value");
          addproperty ("my_radio", gcf, "radio", "val_1|val_2|{val_3}");
          addproperty ("my_style", gcf, "linelinestyle", "--");

     See also: Note: addlistener, *note hggroup:
     XREFhggroup.

   Once a property in added to an ‘hggroup’, it is not linked to any
other property of either the children of the group, or any other
graphics object.  Add so to control the way in which this newly added
property is used, the ‘addlistener’ function is used to define a
callback function that is executed when the property is altered.

 -- : addlistener (H, PROP, FCN)
     Register FCN as listener for the property PROP of the graphics
     object H.

     Property listeners are executed (in order of registration) when the
     property is set.  The new value is already available when the
     listeners are executed.

     PROP must be a string naming a valid property in H.

     FCN can be a function handle, a string or a cell array whose first
     element is a function handle.  If FCN is a function handle, the
     corresponding function should accept at least 2 arguments, that
     will be set to the object handle and the empty matrix respectively.
     If FCN is a string, it must be any valid octave expression.  If FCN
     is a cell array, the first element must be a function handle with
     the same signature as described above.  The next elements of the
     cell array are passed as additional arguments to the function.

     Example:

          function my_listener (h, dummy, p1)
            fprintf ("my_listener called with p1=%s\n", p1);
          endfunction

          addlistener (gcf, "position", {@my_listener, "my string"})

     See also: Note: dellistener, *note addproperty:
     XREFaddproperty, Note: hggroup.

 -- : dellistener (H, PROP, FCN)
     Remove the registration of FCN as a listener for the property PROP
     of the graphics object H.

     The function FCN must be the same variable (not just the same
     value), as was passed to the original call to ‘addlistener’.

     If FCN is not defined then all listener functions of PROP are
     removed.

     Example:

          function my_listener (h, dummy, p1)
            fprintf ("my_listener called with p1=%s\n", p1);
          endfunction

          c = {@my_listener, "my string"};
          addlistener (gcf, "position", c);
          dellistener (gcf, "position", c);

     See also: Note: addlistener.

   An example of the use of these two functions might be

     x = 0:0.1:10;
     hg = hggroup ();
     h = plot (x, sin (x), "color", [1, 0, 0], "parent", hg);
     addproperty ("linestyle", hg, "linelinestyle", get (h, "linestyle"));
     addlistener (hg, "linestyle", @update_props);
     hold on
     plot (x, cos (x), "color", [0, 1, 0], "parent", hg);

     function update_props (h, d)
       set (get (h, "children"), "linestyle", get (h, "linestyle"));
     endfunction

that adds a ‘linestyle’ property to the ‘hggroup’ and propagating any
changes its value to the children of the group.  The ‘linkprop’ function
can be used to simplify the above to be

     x = 0:0.1:10;
     hg = hggroup ();
     h1 = plot (x, sin (x), "color", [1, 0, 0], "parent", hg);
     addproperty ("linestyle", hg, "linelinestyle", get (h, "linestyle"));
     hold on
     h2 = plot (x, cos (x), "color", [0, 1, 0], "parent", hg);
     hlink = linkprop ([hg, h1, h2], "color");

 -- : HLINK = linkprop (H, "PROP")
 -- : HLINK = linkprop (H, {"PROP1", "PROP2", ...})
     Link graphic object properties, such that a change in one is
     propagated to the others.

     The input H is a vector of graphic handles to link.

     PROP may be a string when linking a single property, or a cell
     array of strings for multiple properties.  During the linking
     process all properties in PROP will initially be set to the values
     that exist on the first object in the list H.

     The function returns HLINK which is a special object describing the
     link.  As long as the reference HLINK exists, the link between
     graphic objects will be active.  This means that HLINK must be
     preserved in a workspace variable, a global variable, or otherwise
     stored using a function such as ‘setappdata’ or ‘guidata’.  To
     unlink properties, execute ‘clear HLINK’.

     An example of the use of ‘linkprop’ is

          x = 0:0.1:10;
          subplot (1,2,1);
          h1 = plot (x, sin (x));
          subplot (1,2,2);
          h2 = plot (x, cos (x));
          hlink = linkprop ([h1, h2], {"color","linestyle"});
          set (h1, "color", "green");
          set (h2, "linestyle", "--");

     See also: Note: linkaxes, *note addlistener:
     XREFaddlistener.

 -- : linkaxes (HAX)
 -- : linkaxes (HAX, OPTSTR)
     Link the axis limits of 2-D plots such that a change in one is
     propagated to the others.

     The axes handles to be linked are passed as the first argument HAX.

     The optional second argument is a string which defines which axis
     limits will be linked.  The possible values for OPTSTR are:

     "x"
          Link x-axes

     "y"
          Link y-axes

     "xy" (default)
          Link both axes

     "off"
          Turn off linking

     If unspecified the default is to link both X and Y axes.

     When linking, the limits from the first axes in HAX are applied to
     the other axes in the list.  Subsequent changes to any one of the
     axes will be propagated to the others.

     See also: Note: linkprop, *note addproperty:
     XREFaddproperty.

   These capabilities are used in a number of basic graphics objects.
The ‘hggroup’ objects created by the functions of Octave contain one or
more graphics object and are used to:

   • group together multiple graphics objects,

   • create linked properties between different graphics objects, and

   • to hide the nominal user data, from the actual data of the objects.

For example the ‘stem’ function creates a stem series where each
‘hggroup’ of the stem series contains two line objects representing the
body and head of the stem.  The ‘ydata’ property of the ‘hggroup’ of the
stem series represents the head of the stem, whereas the body of the
stem is between the baseline and this value.  For example

     h = stem (1:4)
     get (h, "xdata")
     ⇒ [  1   2   3   4]'
     get (get (h, "children")(1), "xdata")
     ⇒ [  1   1 NaN   2   2 NaN   3   3 NaN   4   4 NaN]'

shows the difference between the ‘xdata’ of the ‘hggroup’ of a stem
series object and the underlying line.

   The basic properties of such group objects is that they consist of
one or more linked ‘hggroup’, and that changes in certain properties of
these groups are propagated to other members of the group.  Whereas,
certain properties of the members of the group only apply to the current
member.

   In addition the members of the group can also be linked to other
graphics objects through callback functions.  For example the baseline
of the ‘bar’ or ‘stem’ functions is a line object, whose length and
position are automatically adjusted, based on changes to the
corresponding hggroup elements.

Data Sources in Object Groups
Area Series
Bar Series
Contour Groups
Error Bar Series
Line Series
Quiver Group
Scatter Group
Stair Group
Stem Series
Surface Group

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