GUI waitbar and script execution

Hello everyone ! I've go a very simple matlab GUI with a push button that execute a .m file. I need to insert a waitbar that show the .m file execution percentage. For example, like i run "nlfilter" function.

Thank you everyone !

[José-Luis]

In order to insert a useful waitbar, you'd need a reliable way to predict how much time your function is going to take. Do you already have that?

[ingeln91]

No :( my .m file is an image processing script and the execution time is not fixed, but varying with the image(i.e. 0resolution etc...)

[José-Luis]

Without knowing the details of your implementation, it is difficult to give concrete advice.

[ingeln91]

oh,ok :( thank you so much !

[Stephen23]

"I need to insert a waitbar that show the .m file execution percentage"

That is easy: open a waitbar at the start of your function, then update it at several points within the function.

[José-Luis]

I stand by my point.

How many times have we not had to wait hours (slight exageration) after the 99% complete?

It might be that those percentages, as representative of total time, are meaningless.

Adequate percentages in terms of timing require knowledge (or guesses) of how much time each function is going to take.

This can even be meaningless in a loop if it contains functions that will be evaluated only under certain conditions.

They are however indicative how far down in your code you have gone, which might be what OP wanted anyway. They'd be signalling "Hey, I'm still running" more than be indicative of actual percentage.

[Rik]

Of course you are not wrong, it just depends on what you mean with the word useful. Accurate in terms of timing is almost never possible, but accuracy in terms of number of steps left is often possible. Waitbars are notorious for being only guestimates, so if you accept that, the way to use them is outlined in the comment by Stephen and my answer.

[José-Luis]

Fair enough.

Answer 1

[Rik]

The waitbar is simply a progressbar. You need to input the percentage yourself, usually it is best to do that at meaningful time intervals so you get an approximation of the time left. This is however not necessary.

h=waitbar(0,'Please wait, calculation in progress.')
%first piece of code
waitbar(0.5,h)
%sencond piece of code
waitbar(1,h,'Calculation done')%you can update the text
%close the waitbar
delete(h);

If you forget to close the figure during debugging or something, you can use these two lines to force a close:

set(groot,'ShowHiddenHandles','on')
delete(get(groot,'Children'))

So as long as you have access to the internal code of your function, you can generate and update a waitbar. For internal functions (or even worse: mex functions) you're stuck.