FanCmdWaitbar

A lightweight, tqdm-inspired command-line progress bar for MATLAB.

Available at GitHub or at Matlab file exchange

FanCmdWaitbar provides a clean, single-line progress display in the MATLAB Command Window, including percentage, iteration count, optional timing, and dynamic topic display — without cluttering the console.

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✨ Features

• ✅ Single-line progress bar (no console spam)
• ✅ Automatic or manual progress updates
• ✅ Optional elapsed & remaining time estimation
• ✅ Dynamic topic display (e.g. current file, epoch, etc.)
• ✅ Adaptive width (uses full Command Window width)
• ✅ Graceful handling of long text (auto truncation)
• ✅ Clean termination with newline
• ✅ No dependencies

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📦 Installation

Simply copy the file into your MATLAB path:

addpath('path/to/FanCmdWaitbar')

🚀Quick Start

Minimal example (auto-increment):

wb = FanCmdWaitbar(100);

for k = 1:100
    pause(0.05)
    wb.step();
end

With title and topic:

wb = FanCmdWaitbar(50, 'title', 'Processing');

for k = 1:50
    pause(0.05)
    wb.step(k, sprintf('file_%03d.png', k));
end

With custom start index:

wb = FanCmdWaitbar(20, 'startIdx', 5, 'title', 'Training');

for k = 5:20
    wb.step(k, sprintf('epoch item %d', k));
end

Disable timing:

wb = FanCmdWaitbar(100, 'showTime', false);

Nested waitbars:

wb = FanCmdWaitbar(200,'startIdx',1,'title','Training');
for k = 1:200
    wb.step(k, sprintf('epoch item %d', k));
    wb2 = FanCmdWaitbar(10,'title','Batch');
    for b = 1:10
        pause(0.2)
        wb2.step()
    end
    wb2.clc()
end

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⚙️API

Constructor:

wb = FanCmdWaitbar(endIdx, Name, Value)

Required:

• endIdx — final iteration index

Optional:

• startIdx (default: 1)
• showTime (default: true)
• title (default: '')

Step function:

wb.step()
wb.step(i)
wb.step(i, currentTopic)
wb.step([], currentTopic)

Behaviour:

• No argument → auto-increment
• i provided → set explicit progress
• currentTopic → displayed on the right side
• Stops automatically when endIdx is reached

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⏱Time Estimation

When enabled, the bar shows:

elapsed < remaining, Total ~ estimated_total

Estimation is based on:

T_total ≈ (elapsed / completed_steps) * total_steps

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🖥Example Output

Processing |[===========>        ]  42.00%  21/50  00:00:02<00:00:03, Total~00:00:05 | file_021.png

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⚠️Notes

• The progress bar assumes exclusive control over the Command Window line
• Additional fprintf/disp calls may break formatting
• Width detection uses matlab.desktop.commandwindow.size
• Best used in standard desktop MATLAB (not headless)

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🧪Testing

Run:

runTests_FanCmdWaitbar

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📄License

MIT License

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🤝Contributing

Feel free to open issues or pull requests for improvements.