Map on which to plot data, specified as one of the values listed in the table. Six of the basemaps are tiled data sets created using Natural Earth. Five of the basemaps are high-zoom-level maps hosted by Esri^®.

All basemaps except 'darkwater' require Internet access. The 'darkwater' basemap is included with MATLAB.

If you do not have consistent access to the Internet, you can download the basemaps created using Natural Earth onto your local system by using the Add-On Explorer. The five high-zoom-level maps are not available for download. For more about downloading basemaps and changing the default basemap on your local system, see Access Basemaps for Geographic Axes and Charts.

The basemaps hosted by Esri update periodically. As a result, you might see differences in your visualizations over time.

Alignment of boundaries and region labels are a presentation of the feature provided by the data vendors and do not imply endorsement by bat365^®.

Example: gb = geobubble(1:10,1:10,'Basemap','bluegreen')

Example: gb.Basemap = 'bluegreen'

Data Types: char | string

This property is read-only.

Latitude limits of map, specified as a 1-by-2 vector of real, finite values of the form [southern_limit northern_limit] in the range [-90,90]. Use the geolimits function to change latitude limits.

Example: [-85 85]

This property is read-only.

Longitude limits of map, specified as a 1-by-2 vector of real, finite values of the form [western_limit eastern_limit]. Values must be in the range (-Inf, Inf). Use the geolimits function to change longitude limits.

Example: [-100 100]

Center point of map in latitude and longitude, specified as a two-element vector of real, finite values of the form [center_latitude center_longitude].

Example: [38.6292 -95.2520]

Selection mode for the map center, specified as one of these values:

Example: gx.MapCenterMode = 'auto'

Magnification level of map, specified as a real, finite, numeric scalar from 0 through 25, inclusive. The value is a base 2 logarithmic map scale. Increasing the ZoomLevel value by one doubles the map scale.

Selection mode for zoom level, specified as one of these values:

Example: gx.ZoomLevelMode = 'manual'

This property is read-only.

Scale bar, returned as a GeographicScalebar object. The scale bar shows proportional distances on the map.

Change the appearance and behavior of the scale bar by setting properties of the GeographicScalebar object. For example, this code shows how to hide the scale bar.

geoplot(1:10,1:10)
gx = gca;
gx.Scalebar.Visible = "off";

For more information about the properties of GeographicScalebar objects, see GeographicScalebar Properties.

Font name, specified as a supported font name or "FixedWidth". To display and print text properly, you must choose a font that your system supports. The default font depends on your operating system and locale.

To use a fixed-width font that looks good in any locale, use "FixedWidth". The fixed-width font relies on the root FixedWidthFontName property. Setting the root FixedWidthFontName property causes an immediate update of the display to use the new font.

Font size, specified as a numeric scalar. The font size affects the title, tick labels, and scale bar, as well as any legends or color bars associated with the axes. The default font size depends on the specific operating system and locale. By default, the axes object measures the font size in points. To change the units, set the FontUnits property.

MATLAB automatically scales some of the text to a percentage of the axes font size.

Selection mode for the font size, specified as one of these values:

Character thickness, specified as 'normal' or 'bold'.

MATLAB uses the FontWeight property to select a font from those available on your system. Not all fonts have a bold weight. Therefore, specifying a bold font weight can still result in the normal font weight.

Character slant, specified as 'normal' or 'italic'.

Not all fonts have both font styles. Therefore, the italic font might look the same as the normal font.

Scale factor for the label font size, specified as a numeric value greater than 0. The scale factor is applied to the value of the FontSize property to determine the font size for the label.

Example: gx.LabelFontSizeMultiplier = 1.75

Scale factor for the title font size, specified as a numeric value greater than 0. The scale factor is applied to the value of the FontSize property to determine the font size for the title.

Title character thickness, specified as one of these values:

Subtitle character thickness, specified as one of these values:

Font size units, specified as one of these values.

To set both the font size and the font units in a single function call, you first must set the FontUnits property so that the Axes object correctly interprets the specified font size.

Tick mark direction, specified as one of these values:

Selection mode for tick mark direction set by the TickDir property, specified as one of these values.

Example: gx.TickDirMode = 'auto';

Tick mark length, specified as a two-element vector of the form [length unused]. length is the tick mark length. Specify the values in units normalized relative to the longest axes dimension. The GeographicRuler object uses a two-element vector to be consistent with the value of this property in other ruler objects but the second element is unused.

Example: gx.TickLength = [0.02 0.0];

Tick label format, specified as one of these options:

The default tick label format includes degrees, minutes, and seconds. However, the axes displays minutes and seconds only when the ZoomLevel property is greater than or equal to 14.

Latitude ruler, specified as a GeographicRuler object. Use properties of the GeographicRuler object to control the appearance and behavior of the axis ruler. For more information, see GeographicRuler Properties.

This image shows the latitude axis line in red.

Example: latruler = gx.LatitudeAxis;

Example: gx.LatitudeAxis.TickLabelRotation = 45;

Longitude ruler, specified as a GeographicRuler object. Use properties of the GeographicRuler object to control the appearance and behavior of the axis ruler. For more information, see GeographicRuler Properties.

This image shows the longitude axis line in red.

Example: lonruler = gx.LongitudeAxis;

Example: gx.LongitudeAxis.TickDirection = 'out';

Color of axis lines, tick values, and labels, specified as an RGB triplet, hexadecimal color code, color name, or short color name.

For a custom color, specify an RGB triplet or a hexadecimal color code.

Alternatively, you can specify some common colors by name. This table lists the named color options, the equivalent RGB triplets, and hexadecimal color codes.

Here are the RGB triplets and hexadecimal color codes for the default colors MATLAB uses in many types of plots.

Example: gx.AxisColor = [0 0 1];

Example: gx.AxisColor = 'b';

Example: gx.AxisColor = 'blue';

Example: gx.AxisColor = '#0000FF';

Visibility of latitude and longitude lines on the map, specified as 'on' or 'off', or as numeric or logical 1 (true) or 0 (false). A value of 'on' is equivalent to true, and 'off' is equivalent to false. Thus, you can use the value of this property as a logical value. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.

Example: gx.Grid = 'off';

Line style for grid lines, specified as one of the line styles in this table.

To display the grid lines, use the grid on command or set the Grid property to 'on'.

Example: gx.GridLineStyle = '--'

Color of grid lines, specified as an RGB triplet, a hexadecimal color code, a color name, or a short color name.

For a custom color, specify an RGB triplet or a hexadecimal color code.

Alternatively, you can specify some common colors by name. This table lists the named color options, the equivalent RGB triplets, and hexadecimal color codes.

Here are the RGB triplets and hexadecimal color codes for the default colors MATLAB uses in many types of plots.

For example, create a geographic axis object with red grid lines. Set the GridAlpha property to 0.5 to increase visibility.

gx = geoaxes;
gx.GridColor = 'r';
gx.GridAlpha = 0.5;

Example: gx.GridColor = [0 0 1];

Example: gx.GridColor = 'b';

Example: gx.GridColor = 'blue';

Example: gx.GridColor = '#0000FF';

Property for setting the grid color, specified as one of these values:

Grid-line transparency, specified as a value in the range [0,1]. A value of 1 means opaque and a value of 0 means completely transparent.

Example: gx.GridAlpha = 0.5

Selection mode for the GridAlpha property, specified as one of these values:

Example: gx.GridAlphaMode = 'auto'

Text object for the axes title. To add a title, set the String property of the text object. To change the title appearance, such as the font style or color, set other properties. For a complete list, see Text Properties.

ax = gca;
ax.Title.String = 'My Title';
ax.Title.FontWeight = 'normal';

Alternatively, use the title function to add a title and control the appearance.

title('My Title','FontWeight','normal')

Text object for the axes subtitle. To add a subtitle, set the String property of the text object. To change its appearance, such as the font angle, set other properties. For a complete list, see Text Properties.

ax = gca;
ax.Subtitle.String = 'An Insightful Subtitle';
ax.Subtitle.FontAngle = 'italic';

Alternatively, use the subtitle function to add a subtitle and control the appearance.

subtitle('An Insightful Subtitle','FontAngle','italic')

Or use the title function, and specify two character vector input arguments and two output arguments. Then set properties on the second text object returned by the function.

[t,s] = title('Clever Title','An Insightful Subtitle');
s.FontAngle = 'italic';

Title and subtitle horizontal alignment with the plot box, specified as one of the values from the table.

Latitude axis label, specified as a Text object. To specify a label, set the String property of the Text object. To change the label appearance, such as the font style or color, set other Text object properties. For a complete list of properties, see Text Properties.

Example: gx.LatitudeLabel.String = 'My Latitude'

Longitude axis label, specified as a Text object. To specify a label, set the String property of the text object. To change the label appearance, such as the font style or color, set other Text object properties. For a complete list of properties, see Text Properties.

Example: gx.LongitudeLabel.String = 'My Longitude'

This property is read-only.

Legend associated with a geographic axes, specified as a Legend object. To add a legend to the geographic axes, use the legend function. Then, you can use this property to modify the legend. For a complete list of properties, see Legend Properties.

geoplot(rand(3))
legend({'Line 1','Line 2','Line 3'},'FontSize',12)
gx = gca;
gx.Legend.TextColor = 'red';

You also can use this property to determine if the geographic axes has a legend.

gx = gca;
lgd = gx.Legend
if ~isempty(lgd)
    disp('Legend Exists')
end

Color order, specified as a three-column matrix of RGB triplets. This property defines the palette of colors MATLAB uses to create plot objects such as Line, Scatter, and Bar objects. Each row of the array is an RGB triplet. An RGB triplet is a three-element vector whose elements specify the intensities of the red, green, and blue components of a color. The intensities must be in the range [0, 1]. This table lists the default colors.

This table lists the default colors.

MATLAB assigns colors to objects according to their order of creation. For example, when plotting lines, the first line uses the first color, the second line uses the second color, and so on. If there are more lines than colors, then the cycle repeats.

Changing the Color Order Before or After Plotting

You can change the color order in either of the following ways:

Line style order, specified as a character vector, a cell array of character vectors, or a string array. This property lists the line styles that MATLAB uses to display multiple plot lines in the axes. MATLAB assigns styles to lines according to their order of creation. By default, it changes to the next line style only after cycling through all the colors in the ColorOrder property with the current line style. Set the LineStyleCyclingMethod property to "withcolor" to cycle through both together or to "beforecolor" to cycle through the line styles first. The default LineStyleOrder has only one line style, "-".

To customize the line style order, create a cell array of character vectors or a string array. Specify each element of the array as a line specifier or marker specifier from the following tables. You can combine a line and a marker specifier into a single element, such as "-*".

Changing Line Style Order Before or After Plotting

You can change the line style order before or after plotting into the axes. When you set the LineStyleOrder property to a new value, MATLAB updates the styles of any lines that are in the axes. If you continue plotting into the axes, your plotting commands continue using the line styles from the updated list.

Before R2019b: You must change the line style order before plotting. Set the value of the LineStyleOrder property, and then call the hold function to set the axes hold state to "on" before calling any plotting functions. For more information, see Changing ColorOrder or LineStyleOrder affects existing plots immediately and Indexing scheme for ColorOrder and LineStyleOrder might change plot colors and line styles.

Since R2023a

How to cycle through the line styles when there are multiple lines in the axes, specified as one of the values from this table.

The examples in this table were created using the default colors in the ColorOrder property and three line styles (["-","-o","--"]) in the LineStyleOrder property.

This property is read-only.

SeriesIndex value for the next plot object added to the axes, returned as a whole number greater than or equal to 0. This property is useful when you want to track how the objects cycle through the colors and line styles. This property maintains a count of the objects in the axes that have a numeric SeriesIndex property value. MATLAB uses it to assign a SeriesIndex value to each new object. The count starts at 1 when you create the axes, and it increases by 1 for each additional object. Thus, the count is typically n+1, where n is the number of objects in the axes.

If you manually change the ColorOrderIndex or LineStyleOrderIndex property on the axes, the value of the NextSeriesIndex property changes to 0. As a consequence, objects that have a SeriesIndex property no longer update automatically when you change the ColorOrder or LineStyleOrder properties on the axes.

Properties to reset when adding a new plot to the axes, specified as one of these values:

Figures also have a NextPlot property. Alternatively, you can use the newplot function to prepare figures and axes for subsequent graphics commands.

Order for rendering objects, specified as one of these values:

Color order index, specified as a positive integer. This property specifies the next color MATLAB selects from the axes ColorOrder property when it creates the next plot object such as a Line, Scatter, or Bar object.

Line style order index, specified as a positive integer. This property specifies the next line style MATLAB selects from the axes LineStyleOrder property to create the next plot line.

Color map, specified as an m-by-3 array of RGB (red, green, blue) triplets that define m individual colors.

Example: ax.Colormap = [1 0 1; 0 0 1; 1 1 0] sets the color map to three colors: magenta, blue, and yellow.

MATLAB accesses these colors by their row number.

Alternatively, use the colormap function to change the color map.

Scale for color mapping, specified as one of these values:

Color limits for the colormap, specified as a two-element vector of the form [cmin cmax].

If the associated mode property is set to 'auto', then MATLAB chooses the color limits. If you assign a value to this property, then MATLAB sets the mode to 'manual' and does not automatically choose the color limits.

Selection mode for the CLim property, specified as one of these values:

Transparency map, specified as an array of finite alpha values that progress linearly from 0 to 1. The size of the array can be m-by-1 or 1-by-m. MATLAB accesses alpha values by their index in the array. An alphamap can be any length.

Scale for transparency mapping, specified as one of these values:

Alpha limits for alphamap, specified as a two-element vector of the form [amin amax].

If the associated mode property is set to 'auto', then MATLAB chooses the alpha limits. If you set this property, then MATLAB sets the mode to 'manual' and does not automatically choose the alpha limits.

Selection mode for the ALim property, specified as one of these values:

Background color, specified as an RGB triplet, a hexadecimal color code, a color name, or a color short name. The background color is only visible when the Basemap property is set to 'none'.

For a custom color, specify an RGB triplet or a hexadecimal color code.

Alternatively, you can specify some common colors by name. This table lists the named color options, the equivalent RGB triplets, and hexadecimal color codes.

Here are the RGB triplets and hexadecimal color codes for the default colors MATLAB uses in many types of plots.

Example: gx.Color = [0 0 1];

Example: gx.Color = 'b';

Example: gx.Color = 'blue';

Example: gx.Color = '#0000FF';

Width of lines, specified as a positive scalar value in point units. One point equals 1/72 inch.

Example: gx.LineWidth = 1.5

Outline around the geographic axes, specified as 'on' or 'off', or as numeric or logical 1 (true) or 0 (false). A value of 'on' is equivalent to true, and 'off' is equivalent to false. Thus, you can use the value of this property as a logical value. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.

This image shows a geographic axes object with the Box property set to 'off'. Note there is no outline along the top or right border of the axes.

Example: gx.Box = 'off'

Size and position of the geographic axes, including the labels and margins, specified as a four-element vector of the form [left bottom width height]. This vector defines the extents of the rectangle that encloses the outer bounds of the geographic axes. The left and bottom elements define the distance from the lower-left corner of the figure or panel that contains the geographic axes to the lower-left corner of the rectangle. The width and height elements are the rectangle dimensions.

By default, the values are measured in units normalized to the container. To change the units, set the Units property. The default value of [0 0 1 1] includes the whole interior of the container.

Inner size and location, specified as a four-element vector of the form [left bottom width height]. This property is equivalent to the Position property.

Size and position of the geographic axes, not including labels or margins, specified as a four-element vector of the form [left bottom width height]. This vector defines the extents of the tightest bounding rectangle that encloses the geographic axes. The left and bottom elements define the distance from the lower-left corner of the container to the lower-left corner of the rectangle. The width and height elements are the rectangle dimensions.

By default, the values are measured in units normalized to the container. To change the units, set the Units property.

Example: gx.Position = [0 0 1 1] specifies no distance between the lower-left corner of the container to the rectangle and width and height to fill the entire container.

This property is read-only.

Margins for the text labels, returned as a four-element vector of the form [left bottom right top]. This property is read-only.

The elements define the distances between the bounds of the Position property and the extent of the geographic axes text labels and title. By default, the values are measured in units normalized to the figure or uipanel that contains the geographic axes. To change the units, set the Units property.

The Position property and the TightInset property define the tightest bounding box that encloses the geographic axes and its labels and title.

Position property to hold constant when adding, removing, or changing decorations, specified as one of the following values:

Position units, specified as one of these values.

When specifying the units as a Name,Value pair during object creation, you must set the Units property before specifying the properties that you want to use these units, such as Position.

Layout options, specified as a TiledChartLayoutOptions or a GridLayoutOptions object. This property is useful when the axes object is either in a tiled chart layout or a grid layout.

To position the axes within the grid of a tiled chart layout, set the Tile and TileSpan properties on the TiledChartLayoutOptions object. For example, consider a 3-by-3 tiled chart layout. The layout has a grid of tiles in the center, and four tiles along the outer edges. In practice, the grid is invisible and the outer tiles do not take up space until you populate them with axes or charts.

This code places the axes ax in the third tile of the grid.

ax.Layout.Tile = 3;

To make the axes span multiple tiles, specify the TileSpan property as a two-element vector. For example, this axes spans 2 rows and 3 columns of tiles.

ax.Layout.TileSpan = [2 3];

To place the axes in one of the surrounding tiles, specify the Tile property as 'north', 'south', 'east', or 'west'. For example, setting the value to 'east' places the axes in the tile to the right of the grid.

ax.Layout.Tile = 'east';

To place the axes into a layout within an app, specify this property as a GridLayoutOptions object. For more information about working with grid layouts in apps, see uigridlayout.

If the axes is not a child of either a tiled chart layout or a grid layout (for example, if it is a child of a figure or panel) then this property is empty and has no effect.

Data exploration toolbar, specified as an AxesToolbar object. The toolbar appears at the top-right corner of the geographic axes when you hover over it. The toolbar provides quick access to data exploration tools, such as zooming, restore view, and data tips.

If you do not want the toolbar to appear when you hover over the geographic axes, set the Visible property of the AxesToolbar object to 'off'. For more information about the properties of an AxesToolbar object, see AxesToolbar Properties.

Example: gx.Toolbar.Visible = 'off'

Interactions, specified as an array of PanInteraction, ZoomInteraction, or DataTipInteraction objects or as an empty array. The interactions you specify are available within your chart through gestures. You do not have to select any axes toolbar buttons to use them. For example, a PanInteraction object enables dragging to pan within a chart. For a list of interaction objects, see Control Chart Interactivity.

By default, charts within geographic axes have pan, zoom, and data tip interactions. You can replace the default set with a new set of interactions, but you cannot access or modify any of the interactions in the default set. For example, this code replaces the default set of interactions with the PanInteraction and ZoomInteraction objects.

gx = gca;
gx.Interactions = [panInteraction zoomInteraction];

To disable the current set of interactions, call the disableDefaultInteractivity function. You can reenable them by calling the enableDefaultInteractivity function. To remove all mouse interactions from the axes, set this property to an empty array.

State of visibility, specified as 'on' or 'off', or as numeric or logical 1 (true) or 0 (false). A value of 'on' is equivalent to true, and 'off' is equivalent to false. Thus, you can use the value of this property as a logical value. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.

This property is read-only.

Location of mouse pointer, specified as a 2-by-3 array of the form:

[lat lon 0
 lat lon 0]

The CurrentPoint property contains the latitude (lat) and longitude (lon) coordinates of the mouse pointer with respect to the geographic axes. The (lat,lon) points indicate the location of the last mouse click. However, if the figure has a WindowButtonMotionFcn callback defined, then the (lat,lon) points indicate the last location of the mouse pointer.

The format of the return value is consistent with the return value of the CurrentPoint property of the Axes object. For geographic axes, the third column of the return value is always zero. The latitude and longitude values in the second row are duplicates of the values in the first row.

Example: [52.1411 -125.1167 0; 52.1411 -125.1167 0]

Context menu, specified as a ContextMenu object. Use this property to display a context menu when you right-click the object. Create the context menu using the uicontextmenu function.

Selection state, specified as 'on' or 'off', or as numeric or logical 1 (true) or 0 (false). A value of 'on' is equivalent to true, and 'off' is equivalent to false. Thus, you can use the value of this property as a logical value. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.

Display of selection handles when selected, specified as 'on' or 'off', or as numeric or logical 1 (true) or 0 (false). A value of 'on' is equivalent to true, and 'off' is equivalent to false. Thus, you can use the value of this property as a logical value. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.

Mouse-click callback, specified as one of these values:

Use this property to execute code when you click the object. If you specify this property using a function handle, then MATLAB passes two arguments to the callback function when executing the callback:

For more information on how to use function handles to define callback functions, see Create Callbacks for Graphics Objects.

Object creation function, specified as one of these values:

For more information about specifying a callback as a function handle, cell array, or character vector, see Create Callbacks for Graphics Objects.

This property specifies a callback function to execute when MATLAB creates the object. MATLAB initializes all property values before executing the CreateFcn callback. If you do not specify the CreateFcn property, then MATLAB executes a default creation function.

Setting the CreateFcn property on an existing component has no effect.

If you specify this property as a function handle or cell array, you can access the object that is being created using the first argument of the callback function. Otherwise, use the gcbo function to access the object.

Object deletion function, specified as one of these values:

For more information about specifying a callback as a function handle, cell array, or character vector, see Create Callbacks for Graphics Objects.

This property specifies a callback function to execute when MATLAB deletes the object. MATLAB executes the DeleteFcn callback before destroying the properties of the object. If you do not specify the DeleteFcn property, then MATLAB executes a default deletion function.

If you specify this property as a function handle or cell array, you can access the object that is being deleted using the first argument of the callback function. Otherwise, use the gcbo function to access the object.

Callback interruption, specified as 'on' or 'off', or as numeric or logical 1 (true) or 0 (false). A value of 'on' is equivalent to true, and 'off' is equivalent to false. Thus, you can use the value of this property as a logical value. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.

This property determines if a running callback can be interrupted. There are two callback states to consider:

MATLAB determines callback interruption behavior whenever it executes a command that processes the callback queue. These commands include drawnow, figure, uifigure, getframe, waitfor, and pause.

If the running callback does not contain one of these commands, then no interruption occurs. MATLAB first finishes executing the running callback, and later executes the interrupting callback.

If the running callback does contain one of these commands, then the Interruptible property of the object that owns the running callback determines if the interruption occurs:

Callback queuing, specified as 'queue' or 'cancel'. The BusyAction property determines how MATLAB handles the execution of interrupting callbacks. There are two callback states to consider:

The BusyAction property determines callback queuing behavior only when both of these conditions are met:

Under these conditions, the BusyAction property of the object that owns the interrupting callback determines how MATLAB handles the interrupting callback. These are possible values of the BusyAction property:

Ability to capture mouse clicks, specified as one of these values:

If you want an object to be clickable when it is underneath other objects that you do not want to be clickable, then set the PickableParts property of the other objects to 'none' so that the click passes through them.

Response to captured mouse clicks, specified as 'on' or 'off', or as numeric or logical 1 (true) or 0 (false). A value of 'on' is equivalent to true, and 'off' is equivalent to false. Thus, you can use the value of this property as a logical value. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.

This property is read-only.

Deletion status, returned as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.

MATLAB sets the BeingDeleted property to 'on' when the DeleteFcn callback begins execution. The BeingDeleted property remains set to 'on' until the component object no longer exists.

Check the value of the BeingDeleted property to verify that the object is not about to be deleted before querying or modifying it.

Parent container, specified as a Figure, Panel, Tab, TiledChartLayout, or GridLayout object.

Children, returned as an array of graphics objects. Use this property to view a list of the children or to reorder the children by setting the property to a permutation of itself.

You cannot add or remove children using the Children property. To add a child to this list, set the Parent property of the child graphics object to the GeographicAxes object.

Visibility of the object handle in the Children property of the parent, specified as one of these values:

If the object is not listed in the Children property of the parent, then functions that obtain object handles by searching the object hierarchy or querying handle properties cannot return it. Examples of such functions include the get, findobj, gca, gcf, gco, newplot, cla, clf, and close functions.

Hidden object handles are still valid. Set the root ShowHiddenHandles property to "on" to list all object handles regardless of their HandleVisibility property setting.

This property is read-only.

Type of graphics object, returned as 'geoaxes'.

Object identifier, specified as a character vector or string scalar. You can specify a unique Tag value to serve as an identifier for an object. When you need access to the object elsewhere in your code, you can use the findobj function to search for the object based on the Tag value.

User data, specified as any MATLAB array. For example, you can specify a scalar, vector, matrix, cell array, character array, table, or structure. Use this property to store arbitrary data on an object.

If you are working in App Designer, create public or private properties in the app to share data instead of using the UserData property. For more information, see Share Data Within App Designer Apps.