executing a plot every time interval without keeping matlab busy

I have a process that updates a file every 5 minutes. The data in the file is a matrix where in the first row there are my x axis values and on each of the following rows there are values to be plotted on the y axis. every 5 minuets the matrix adds another row of y values. I want to plot the data every 5 minuets to see how it is changed over time. right now im using a while loop which works but the problem is that it keeps matlab busy. i wanted to know if there's an option to plot every 5 minutes without keeping matlab busy?

thanks

here's my code:

while a == true
     hold on 
     cla;
     blue_etching = importdata('abs during blue etching 2.dat');
     plot(blue_etching(1,:),blue_etching([2 end],:));
     legend('initial spectrum',[num2str(size(blue_etching,1)*5) ,' minuets'])
     drawnow;
     pause(300); 
end

Answer 1

[Hassaan]

% Run the example
updatePlotAfterIntervalExample;

Timer started. Close the figure to stop.

% main function/logic
function updatePlotAfterIntervalExample
    % Dummy data initialization
    x = 0:0.1:10; % X-axis values
    y = sin(x); % Initial Y-axis values (1st row)

    % Create a figure
    hFig = figure;
    hAx = axes('Parent', hFig);

    % Setup a timer
    t = timer;
    t.Period = 2; % 2 seconds interval
    t.ExecutionMode = 'fixedRate';
    t.TimerFcn = @(obj, event) updatePlot(obj, event, hAx, x, y);
    
    % Start the timer
    start(t);

    % Display a message about how to stop
    disp('Timer started. Close the figure to stop.');

    % Stop and delete timer when the figure is closed
    set(hFig, 'CloseRequestFcn', @(src, evnt) stopAndDeleteTimer(src, t));
end

% Define a timer function[callback] to update and plot data
function updatePlot(obj, event, hAx, x, y)
    % Simulate adding a new row of data (adding noise here for variation)
    newY = sin(x) + 0.1*randn(size(x)); 
    y(end+1, :) = newY; % Append to the matrix

    % Plot
    cla(hAx); % Clear axes
    plot(hAx, x, y);
    title(hAx, ['Data updated at: ', datestr(now)]);
    drawnow;
end

function stopAndDeleteTimer(src, tmr)
    stop(tmr);
    delete(tmr);
    delete(src);
end

1. Run the script. It will start updating the plot every 2 seconds.
2. To stop the process, simply close the plot window. The timer will be stopped and deleted automatically.

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