# Matrix of type textbox?
**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/matrix-of-type-textbox/135260
**Category:** New to Julia
**Tags:** makie, matrix
**Created:** [January 25, 2026, 11:17pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/matrix-of-type-textbox/135260 "2026-01-25T23:17:12Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@BananaMaster3](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/BananaMaster3)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2026, 11:17pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/matrix-of-type-textbox/135260/1 "2026-01-25T23:17:13Z")
Hey, I want to store my instances of Makie.Textbox in a matrix of size m=(L,L) where L is an integer.
The ideal situation would be:
```julia-auto
matrix = zeros(m, Makie.Textbox)
for ...
#assign different parts of the matrix to different textboxes
end
```
Unfortunately, that zeros function doesn’t work. It feels weird to make a custom zeros function that creates a new figure, and makes each “zero” textbox be inside of that figure. Is there a better way to do this?
Thank you!
---
### Author:  [@stevengj](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/stevengj)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2026, 12:52am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/matrix-of-type-textbox/135260/2 "2026-01-26T00:52:07Z")
> [@BananaMaster3](#):
>
> `matrix = zeros(m, Makie.Textbox)`
`zeros` doesn’t make sense here because the array is not numeric. Just do
```julia-auto
matrix = Array{Makie.Textbox}(undef, m)
```
to allocate an uninitialized 2d array.
---
### Author:  [@asinghvi17](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/asinghvi17)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2026, 1:24pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/matrix-of-type-textbox/135260/3 "2026-01-26T13:24:24Z")
You can check `isundefined(array, i, j)` to check if that needs to be initialized as well, iirc
---
### Author:  [@stevengj](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/stevengj)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2026, 1:52pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/matrix-of-type-textbox/135260/4 "2026-01-26T13:52:25Z")
I think you mean `isassigned`?
---
### Author:  [@jules](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jules)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2026, 1:59pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/matrix-of-type-textbox/135260/5 "2026-01-26T13:59:02Z")
> [@BananaMaster3](#):
>
> ```julia-auto
> matrix = zeros(m, Makie.Textbox)
> for ...
> #assign different parts of the matrix to different textboxes
> end
>
> ```
Usually, rather than preallocating an array with the right return type and filling that, I find it easier to use `map` which is like a for loop with automated storage. If you need a matrix as output, you’d need some 2d iterator as input, too, as `for ..., for ...` syntax doesn’t work with `map`. `Iterators.product` can fulfill this purpose, like. Here’s an example with strings, but those could also return `Textbox`es:
```julia
julia> map(Iterators.product(1:3, 1:3)) do (i, j)
"textbox $i, $j"
end
3×3 Matrix{String}:
"textbox 1, 1" "textbox 1, 2" "textbox 1, 3"
"textbox 2, 1" "textbox 2, 2" "textbox 2, 3"
"textbox 3, 1" "textbox 3, 2" "textbox 3, 3"
```
---
### Author:  [@stevengj](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/stevengj)
#### Post date: [January 26, 2026, 2:19pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/matrix-of-type-textbox/135260/6 "2026-01-26T14:19:20Z")
A comprehension is also pretty convenient:
```julia-auto
julia> ["textbox $i, $j" for i=1:3, j=1:3]
3×3 Matrix{String}:
"textbox 1, 1" "textbox 1, 2" "textbox 1, 3"
"textbox 2, 1" "textbox 2, 2" "textbox 2, 3"
"textbox 3, 1" "textbox 3, 2" "textbox 3, 3"
```
---
### Author:  [@asinghvi17](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/asinghvi17)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2026, 7:53pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/matrix-of-type-textbox/135260/7 "2026-01-27T19:53:18Z")
Ah my bad, it’s actually `isdefined(array, i, j)`.