Does `imshow` just delete all other objects in the axes?

It seems that imshow just deletes all other objects or handles in the parenting axes. Say I have a script like this

fig = figure;
ax = axes(fig);
text(ax, 0.5, 0.5, 'string');
h0 = findobj(ax, 'Type', 'text');
img = randn(128, 128);
imshow(img); % why is `imshow(ax, img)` illegal?
h = findobj(ax, 'Type', 'text');

h0 is a 1x1 text, but h is empty!

Another wierd behaviour of imshow is that you cannot set the axes in the imshow command, i.e. imshow(ax, img) is not allowed.

Why is imshow so different?

[Albert Bing]

Sorry it was my carelessness. The point is the 'NextPlot' property of the axes. The default value is 'replace'. So to make the previous defined handles kept, it should be changed to 'add'.

[Mario Malic]

You can also do it that way, or with hold.

Answer 1

[Mario Malic]

Hello,

To use hold on with handles to axes, this works.

hold(ax, 'on');

To assign image to axes with imshow

imshow(img, 'Parent', ax)

[Albert Bing]

Thanks

I checked my other code, turned out the axes was used as axes(fig, 'NextPlot', 'add').

So I guess imshow is not so different.