Print Multiple Lines into TextArea Automatically without mentioning the Array (MATLAB App Designer)

Hello,

I am trying to create like a message box into app designer using the Text Area component. For example if the user enter the Name and LastName it displays 'Name and LastName Entered successfully'. Else the Text Area displays 'Information Not Provided'. So now when the user selects Gender from drop down box it should displays 'Gender as Male selected'. Text is displayed into the Text Area when a Button is clicked. The button has a functionality to check whether the textField is empty or not empty. And to check whether the textField is empty its done with a help of function checkNames(app). To check the selected Gender from the dropDown Menu I am using a Switch case and the switch case is evaluated using the function checkGender(app). Is there a way so that i dont have to define .Value{1}, .Value{2} .... Thank You

Code

 
    methods (Access = private)
        
        function checkNames(app)
            if ~(isempty(app.EditField_Name.Value) || isempty(app.EditField_LastName.Value))
                app.MessageBoxTextArea.Value{1} = 'Name and LastName Entered successfully';
                
            else
                app.MessageBoxTextArea.Value{1} = 'Information Not Provided';
                uiwait(app.checkNames);
            end
        end
        
        function checkGender(app)
            switch app.DropDown_Gender.Value
                
                case 'Male'
                    app.MessageBoxTextArea.Value{2} = 'Gender as Male Selected';
                    
                case 'Female'
                    app.MessageBoxTextArea.Value{2} = 'Gender as Female Selected';
                    
                otherwise
                     app.MessageBoxTextArea.Value{2} = 'Gender as Others Selected';
                    
            end
            
        end
        end
        
         % Callbacks that handle component events
    methods (Access = private)

        % Button pushed function: Button
        function ButtonPushed(app, event)
            checkNames(app);
            checkGender(app);
        end
    end

[Rahul]

Thnak you @Geoff Hayes for the detailed reply. It worked for me ! I have a follow up question for the same topic. Now I want to diaplay "Name Tom and Last Name Jerry Entered Successfully". How can I append/ merge it into the same function. For example Intially I used app.MessageBoxTextArea.Value{1} = ('Name ',app.EditField_Name.Value, 'and LastName', app.EditField_LastName.Value, 'Entered successfully');

Because calling

addMessageToMessageBox(app,'Name',app.EditField_Name.Value);

Will not work and throw an error to many input arguments.

How can I modify the function addMessageToMessageBox(app, msg) to accept this? or is there another way to do this? Thank you again

[Geoff Hayes]

@Rahul - you could wrap the string inputs in a call to strcat like

addMessageToMessageBox(app,strcat('Name',app.EditField_Name.Value));

[Rahul]

Thank you @Geoff Hayes. It worked for me! Can we also add the functionality of changing the text colour? for example if its 'Data Entered Sucessfully' it should display in the text area with Green as the font colour. And when it is an error it is displayed with a font colour of Red?

[Geoff Hayes]

@Rahul - I don't think you can do that for individual lines. There may be some undocumented means of doing that sort of thing (wrapping text in html tags?) but I'm not sure how to do that.

Answer 1

[Geoff Hayes]

@Rahul - you could add a helper function/method that will add the text for you at the correct index. For example, that function may look like

function addMessageToMessageBox(app, msg)
    x = length(app.MessageBoxTextArea.Value);
    app.MessageBoxTextArea.Value{x+1} = msg;
end

and then your code would become

function checkNames(app)
    if ~(isempty(app.EditField_Name.Value) || isempty(app.EditField_LastName.Value))
        addMessageToMessageBox(app, Name and LastName Entered successfully');
        
    else
        addMessageToMessageBox(app, 'Information Not Provided');
        uiwait(app.checkNames);
    end
end

function checkGender(app)
    switch app.DropDown_Gender.Value
        
        case 'Male'
            addMessageToMessageBox(app, 'Gender as Male Selected');
            
        case 'Female'
            addMessageToMessageBox(app, 'Gender as Female Selected');
            
        otherwise
            addMessageToMessageBox(app, 'Gender as Others Selected');
            
    end
end