Wait for user input to select region of data from plot and save it to a variable

I have a list of files named sequentially (E.g. "Run1.csv", "Run2.csv", ..... ) that I am reading using "readtable" and plotting the contents using a for loop. I am generating a figure for each file in the for loop.

%% Tidy up workspace
clc; clear; close all;

%% Load raw data
ir_dir = "Path to directory 1\";
ptv_dir = "Path to directory 2\"; 

% Constants
num_runs = 28; % Number of files

for i=1:num_runs
    % create dynamic file path
    ir_fname = "Run" + num2str(i) +".dat";
    ptv_fname = "Run" + num2str(i) +".csv";
    ir_fullpath = ir_dir + ir_fname;
    ptv_fullpath = ptv_dir + ptv_fname;
    
    % Read data
    tblIR = readtable(ir_fullpath);
    tblPTV = readtable(ptv_fullpath);     
    
    % plot data
    figure(i);
    plot(tblIR.Time,tblIR.Data1,'--r','LineWidth',2);
    hold on;
    plot(tblIR.Time,tblIR.Data2,'-c','LineWidth',1.5);
    plot(tblIR.Time,tblIR.Data3,'-m','LineWidth',1.5);
    plot(tblPTV.Time,tblPTV.Data4,'-k','LineWidth',2);
    plot(tblPTV.Time,tblPTV.Data5,'-b','LineWidth',2);
    plot(tblPTV.Time,tblPTV.Data6,'-g','LineWidth',2);
    hold off;
    grid on;
    xlabel('Time (hh:mm:ss.sss)');
    ylabel('Temperature (C)');
    legend('Data1','Data2','Data3','Data4','Data5','Data6','Location','southeast');
    title("Run #" + num2str(i));
    
    % Wait for user input to select data and save it to a variable (data
    % brushing?? -- How to automate this?)
    
    
    % After user has selected data using data brushing and data is saved,
    % continue with for loop execution
    clear tblIR;
    clear tblPTV;
       
end

Here is an example of output plot that I get after each iteration of for loop:

After the plot is generated, I want the for loop to pause for user to select a region of data in the plot. Something like this:

Upon selection of the data using data brush, I want to data to be saved into a variable in the workspace and continue on with next iteration of for loop.

Is it possible to automate this data brushing for each iteration of for loop? Is there a way to invoke data brushing automatically when a figure is generated? and to automatically save the results of data brushing to a variable?

Answer 1

[Monisha Nalluru]

BrushData is property present on plot handle used to set and get brushed data on a plot

In order to get the brushed data and save to workspace programmatically, here is the following example

figure;
x=0:2*pi;
y=sin(x);
y1=cos(x);
plot(x,y);
hold on;
plot(x,y1);
ax = gca;
for i=1:length(ax.Children) % loops through all the plot in figure
    indices = find(ax.Children(i).BrushData); % gives the indices which are brushed
    % save the data into required variable
end

Inorder to set brushed data programmatically then you can use the following structure,

ax.Children(i).BrushData = [0 1 1 1 1 1 1]; % pass the indices which wants to brush as 1 and remaining as 0