Please note that the recommended version of Scilab is 2026.0.0. This page might be outdated.
See the recommended documentation of this function
get
Gets the handle of a graphical or User Interface object, or the property's value of objects.
Syntax
h = get(0) // console h = get(tag) h = get(tagsPath) h = get(key) fids = get("figures_id") val = H.prop val = H(prop) val = get(0, prop) val = get(H, prop) val = get(tag, prop) val = get(tagsPath, prop)
Arguments
- h
 Scalar handle of the first found targeted graphical or user Interface object.
- H
 Handle or vector of handles of the targeted graphical or user Interface objects. When
His a vector of handles, addressed entities may be of different graphical types, but all of them must have the given property, otherwise an error is yielded.- fids
 vector of indices of all opened figures.
- 0 (zero)
 Special id addressing the console and its properties.
- tag
 case-sensitive tag's value of the targeted object. Values equal to a documented
keyhave a special meaning and must not be used as tag (please see below).- tagsPath
 A single case-sensitive character string containing a path pointing to the graphic entity. This path is made of the
"Tag"values of the targeted entity and of its ascendants in the graphical hierarchy, under the format"targetTag"or"figuretag/targetTag"or"figuretag/entity1tag/entity2tag/entitntag/targetTag". Wildcards "*" can also be used for multi-paths search. The first entity matching the path will be used.- prop
 text: case-insensitive name of the single property whose value must be retrieved. To get the list of all existing properties, see graphics_entities or uicontrol for User Interface objects. An error is yielded if the property does not exist for the targeted object.
- key
 A keyword among the following ones:
"current_entity" or "hdl": returns the handle on the lastly created (and still existent) entity. get("current_entity")is equivalent to gce()."current_figure": returns the handle on the current graphic figure. get("current_figure")is equivalent to gcf()."current_axes": returns a handle on the current axes entity. get("current_axes")is equivalent to gca()."default_figure": returns a handle on the default figure entity. get("default_figure")is equivalent to gdf()."default_axes": returns a handle on the default axes entity. get("default_axes")is equivalent to gda()."figures_id": returns a row vector containing ids of all opened graphic figures. get("figures_id")is equivalent to winsid().- val
 Corresponding value of the targeted property.
Description
get(..) allows two types of actions:
- retrieving the handle or index of a targeted object, according to its tag, to a tagspath leading to it, or to some key for special targets.
 - retrieving the value of a given property for a given object.
 
- the Scilab console
 - any opened graphical figures and all their contents
 - any existing interactive components, including uicontrol objects, menus, waitbars and progressionbars.
 
![]()  | Objects with properties  .visible="off" or/and
                .handle_visible="off", or/and rendered off-screen out of the
                driver("REC"), are still always reachable. | 
Getting the handle of an object
[] is returned anyway if no matching object is found.
h = get(0) returns the handle of Scilab's console.
h  = get(tag) returns the handle of the first
                object found with .tag==tag.
h  = get(tagsPath) returns the handle of the first
                object found with a tag's path matching tagspath.
h  = get(key) returns the special object
                according to the key string, as documented in the
                Arguments section.
fids = get("figures_id") returns the vector
                of indices of all existing graphical figures.
                This is equivalent to winsid()
Value of a property
val = get(0, prop) returns the value of the given Root or Console property.
val = get(H, prop) or
                val = H(prop) or even more simply
                val = H.prop returns the value of the
                prop property for the object whose handle is H.
If H is a vector of handles, and if the expected value of the
                property
                
- is scalar: then 
valreturns a column of the values for all objects inH. Example:--> plot2d(), get([gcf() gca() gce()], "visible") ans = "on" "on" "on"
 - is NOT scalar: then 
valreturns the vertical concatenation of the values returned for all objects inH. Example:--> clf, plot --> get(gcf().children(1), "data_bounds") ans = 1. -1. 2. 1. --> get(gcf().children, "data_bounds") ans = 1. -1. 2. 1. 0. -1. 6.2831853 1.
 
![]()  | The  H.prop syntax is the most compact and powerful, and should
                    be preferred. Noticeably, when it is meaningful, it can be chained in a
                    straightforward way as in H.prop1.prop2.prop, without
                    intermediate handles or/and explicitly nested calls to get(). Example:
                    Axes.children.children.foreground is equivalent to
                    get(get(get(get(topAxes, "children"),"children"),"children"),"foreground"). | 
val = get(tag, prop) returns the value of the
                property prop for the first object found whose
                .tag==tag.
val = get(tagsPath, prop) returns the value of
                the property prop for the first object found whose location
                in the graphical hierarchy and whose .tag match tagsPath.
Examples
close(winsid()) scf(); scf(2); plot2d f1 = gcf(); // or f1 = get("current_figure"); f1.axes_size // or get(f1, "axes_size") f2 = scf(7); plot h = gce() // or h = get("current_entity") h.children(1:4).foreground // Colors of 4 first curves axes = gcf().children // or get(gcf(), "children"); bottomAxes = gca(); // or bottomAxes = get("current_axes"); topAxes = axes($); topAxes.children.children.line_style // instead of get(get(get(get(topAxes, "children"),"children"),"children"),"line_style") [f1 f2].figure_id // of get([f1 f2], "figure_id") [f1 f2].anti_aliasing // of get([f1 f2], "anti_aliasing") // for User Interface objects h = uicontrol('string', 'Button'); // Opens a window with a button. p = h.position // or p = get(h,'position'); close(get("figures_id")); // close all figures
--> f1 = gcf();                  // or f1 = get("current_figure");
--> f1.axes_size                 // or get(f1, "axes_size")
 ans  =
   610.   460.
--> f2 = scf(7);
--> plot
--> h = gce()                   // or h = get("current_entity")
 h  =
Handle of type "Compound" with properties:
==========================================
parent: Axes
children: matrix 41x1
visible = "on"
user_data = []
tag = ""
--> h.children(1:4).foreground  // Colors of 4 first curves
 ans  =
   36.
   35.
   34.
   5.
--> axes = gcf().children       // or get(gcf(), "children");
 axes  =
2 by 1 matrix of handles:
=========================
Axes
Axes
--> bottomAxes = gca();         // or bottomAxes = get("current_axes");
--> topAxes = axes($);
--> topAxes.children.children.line_style
 ans  =
   2.
   1.
   4.
--> [f1 f2].figure_id           // of get([f1 f2], "figure_id")
 ans  =
   2.
   7.
--> [f1 f2].anti_aliasing       // of get([f1 f2], "anti_aliasing")
 ans  =
  "off"
  "off"
--> // for  User Interface objects
--> h = uicontrol('string', 'Button'); // Opens a window with a  button.
--> p = h.position             // or p = get(h,'position');
 p  =
   20.   40.   40.   20.
Console special handle:
get(0) get(0, "screensize_px")
--> get(0) ans = Handle of type "Console" with properties: ========================================= Children: "uimenu" ShowHiddenHandles = "off" ShowHiddenProperties = "off" UseDeprecatedSkin = "off" user_data = [] tag = "" --> get(0, "screensize_px") ans = 1. 1. 1920. 1080.
Using tags and tagsPaths:
f = figure("dockable", "off", "menubar", "none", "toolbar", "none", "infobar_visible", "off", "tag", "mainfig"); frameHandle = uicontrol("parent", f, "style", "frame", "position", [200 200 190 100], "tag", "myframe"); btnHandle = uicontrol("parent", frameHandle, "position", [20 20 150 30], "string", "button", "tag", "example"); get("myframe") == frameHandle set("mainfig/myframe/example", "string", "complete path"); get("mainfig/myframe/example", "string") set("mainfig/*/example", "string", "wildcard path"); get("mainfig/*/example", "string") set("myframe/example", "string", "partial path"); get("myframe/example", "string")
See also
- findobj — find an object with specified property
 - set — set properties of some graphic objects or uimenus or uicontrol interactive components
 - console_properties — Description of console object properties.
 - root_properties — Description des propriétés de l'objet root.
 - graphics_entities — description of the graphics entities data structures
 - uicontrol_properties — Description of the uicontrol properties.
 - gcf — Return handle of current graphic window.
 - gdf — Return handle of default figure.
 - gca — Return handle of current axes.
 - gda — Return handle of default axes.
 - gce — Get current entity handle.
 - winsid — renvoie la liste des fenêtre graphiques ouvertes
 
History
| Version | Description | 
| 5.5.0 | The syntaxes h=get(tag), h=get(tagsPath), val=get(tagsPath,prop), and val=get(tagsPath, prop) are introduced. | 
| Report an issue | ||
| << property | property | set >> | 
