heatmap cannot have Axes or uiaxes as parent

The heatmap function, as of release R2019b, cannot have an uiaxes container as a parent.

Any workaround this limitation?

Mathworks, it would be greatly appreciated if this would become a possibility in future releases!

Thank you,

Alex.

Answer 1

[Vedant Shah]

Hi @Alexandru Bitca,

As per the documentation, it is not possible to place a heatmap inside a UIAxes.However, a similar workflow can be achieved using the “UIPanel”. To gain greater control over the position, size, and overall layout of the heatmap, consider the following workaround:

• Use a “UIPanel” as the parent container for the heatmap to enhance control over positioning and layout.
• Embedd the heatmap within the “UIPanel” thus achieving functionality similar to “UIAxes”, in terms of precise positioning and layout adjustments.
• This workaround allows precise positioning for a structured layout, layout control for seamless integration, and flexibility to replicate “UIAxes” functionality when direct embedding is not feasible.

Below is an example code snippet for the approach mentioned above:

% Create UIFigure 
fig = uifigure('Name', 'Heatmap Example', 'Position', [100, 100, 500, 400]); 

% Create a Panel to Act Like UIAxes 
p = uipanel(fig, 'Position', [50, 50, 400, 300]); 

% Define heatmap data 
cdata = [45 60 32; 43 54 76; 32 94 68; 23 95 58]; 
xvalues = {'Small','Medium','Large'}; 
yvalues = {'Green','Red','Blue','Gray'}; 

% Create heatmap inside the Panel 
h = heatmap(p, xvalues, yvalues, cdata); 

Here is a screenshot of expected output from the above code snippet:

For a better understanding of the functions used in above workaround, refer to the documentations using the following commands in MATLAB command line:

web(fullfile(docroot, "/matlab/ref/uifigure.html")) 
web(fullfile(docroot, "/matlab/ref/uipanel.html")) 
web(fullfile(docroot, "/matlab/ref/heatmap.html"))