Viewing multi level structures in the the Workspace

I am working with a very complex structured data set with many levels. When I need to "drill down" and see the values four levels deep in the structure, my desktop is littered with the higher levels I had to open just to get down to the one I'm looking at. Is there a setting in MATLAB that allows the previous window to close when the next level is opened. I know this is not always desirable. But I am spending a lot of time closing the trail of breadcrumbs that I don't need.

[Jan]

What exactly is a "data set with many levels"? A nested struct? Why is your desktop filled when you "see the values"? How do you display them? What is the "previous window"?

[Mike Smith]

What exactly is a "data set with many levels"? A nested struct? ----> Yes, a nested structure e.g.

telemetry.gps.position.latitude

Why is your desktop filled when you "see the values"? How do you display them? What is the "previous window"?

In the Workspace, I open the nested structure "telemetry". Under "telemetry", there are several levels (battery, gps, ins, comms, etc.) I open "gps". The "telemetry" window remains open on my desk top. In "gps" the list of categories would be (position, speed, quality, etc.). I open "position". The "telemetry" and "gps" windows remain open. Under gps, the list of categories would be (latitude, longitude, altitude) I click on "latitude" and see the vector of latitude values. Open on my desk top are: telemetry,gps,position, and latitude. When I am finished examining the contents of the latitude values, I have to close all four windows.

This is a very simplified example and the actual data structure is much more complex. I also understand that this file is needlessly complex in its nesting, but I did not design it and I must deal with what I get.

Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

[OCDER]

You could use this recursive function to display the variable stored in the Nth level of a structure. This is a starting template code, so you'll have to modify it to fit your needs.

%showNSD will show the nested structure data at the Nth level
%
%  EXAMPLE
%    clear S
%    S.a.b.c1.d.e = 1;
%    S.a.b.c1.d.f = 2;
%    S.a.b.c1.d.g = 3;
%    S.a.b.c2.d = 4;
%    S.a.b.c3.d = 5;
%
%    >>showNSD(S, 5)
%        1
%        2
%        3
%    >>showNSD(S, 4)
%        4
%        5
function showNSD(S, MaxLevel, varargin)
if ~isempty(varargin)
    CurLevel = varargin{1};
else
    CurLevel = 0;
end

%fprintf('%sLEVEL_%d\n', repmat('.', 1, CurLevel), CurLevel); %Uncomment if you want to see the level #

if CurLevel == MaxLevel 
    disp(S)
    return
elseif ~isstruct(S)
    %disp(S) %Uncomment if you want to also show non-struct values for
             %levels < MaxLevel
    return
end

FieldName = fieldnames(S);
for j = 1:length(FieldName)
    showNSD(S.(FieldName{j}), MaxLevel, CurLevel+1);
end