Saving Specific Figure Handle For Recovery After Plotting Many Figures

I'm writing quite a complicated simulation which involves multiple calls to different functions/subfunctions. The full setup has >100 switch cases, which usually all run and produce multiple plots. The overall intention is to get the code to switch to the 'best figure' (as set by some error metric we're minimising) once a function has finished running.

As a simple functioning piece of code which should cover my requirements whilst maintaining SOME simplicity, think of a structure something like this will suffice:

%Main Script
x = 0:0.01:10; Answers = function_1(x);

%% Function Files:
function Answers = function_1(x)
    for methods = 1:2
        switch methods
            case 1; ph = 1; %Do Stuff
            case 2; ph = 2; % Do Other Stuff
        end
        
        [Err,~] = function_2(x,ph); %%Take Results from Switches Make some other calculation and a PATCH plot
        
        %*************************************************** Error Check Section - Save Axes/Figure No. Here from fun_2?
        if Err(end) <= Err_min
            
            Err_min = Err(end);
            %Would Like to Save the figure handle here in a way such I can command line switch to that specific,
            % most recent figure when there are a few 100 open.
            
        end
        %***************************************************
        
        Answers = Err;
    end

%Additional Line Probably Needed Here To Switch To/Open The Figure Saved In The Error Check
%May include a save command here also..
end

function [Err,subresults] = function_2(x,ph)
y = x.*ph;
custom_plot_function(x,y); %Basically just a complicated ****patch object**** with titles & axes and markers & stuff in my actual code
subresults = x.^2 .*y;
Err = abs(y-subresults);
end

From the documentation, I think fig = gcf; ax = fig.CurrentAxes will get me the current axes handle, but I'm unsure how to use that handle to find the specific figure from the 100's generated, I have a feeling this is a simple syntax issue but I just can't find it in the documentation.

Answer 1

[Matt J]

When you open a figure or axis you can save a handle to it, e.g.,

h(1)=figure(1);
h(2)=figure(2);
...

You can later use whichever h(i) you need to manipulate the figure.

[ADSW121365]

This solution works happily, but it involved asking my plot function to also return a variable for the axis handle, and adding something to sort through the full list of axis handles to save only the one(s) I want. Thank you!!

The neater (but unimportant) approach (at least in my head) would be to only generate a figure handle IF the logic is true, whilst still plotting all the figures, so the final array is a list of figure handles for which the logic is true without having to write the additional sorting. Again, completely unimportant but I'd be interested to see if this is possible.

[Steven Lord]

If you have an axes handle, you can find the handle of the figure that contains it. You can even work your way back from an individual line to its containing figure.

f = figure;
ax = axes('Parent', f);
h = plot(ax, 1:10, 1:10);

ax2 = ancestor(h, 'axes'); % same as ax
ax2 == ax % true

f2 = ancestor(ax, 'figure'); % same as f
f2 == f % true

f3 = ancestor(h, 'figure'); % same as f and f2
f3 == f % true

[ADSW121365]

Awesome thanks!