plot

Plotting $xy$ data (2D plot)

Usages

plot(y)

• y should be a scalar, vector or matrix.
• If y is a scalar, only the point [1, y] is plotted.
• If y is a vector (row or column) of k entries, a line of k data points is plotted.
• If y is a matrix of size [np, nl] with np > 1 and nl > 1, then nl separate lines of np data points are plotted.
• It uses solid line with the default line colors and no marker.
• If y is real, it gives the same result as plot(1:np, y), where np is the number of rows of y.
• If y is complex, it gives the same result as plot(real(y), imag(y)).

plot(y,spec)

• This is the same as plot(y) above, but it has additional controls over line attributes using the specification string spec.
• The specification string spec should be a character vector specifying values of various line attributes.
• Not all line attributes are available for a spec. The available ones are 'color', 'lineStyle' and 'marker'.
• A line specification string is a concatenation of attribute values, e.g., '-r' means a solid line of red color. An attribute value in a specification string can be over-written by a latter value in the same string. For example, '-.-' gives a solid line since '-.' (dash-dotted line) is overwritten by '-' (solid line). Similarly, 'blackred' gives a red line, instead of a black one.
• spec applies to all lines generated for y. Hence, all lines have the same line style and marker style specified by spec.
• It gives the same result as plot(1:np, y, spec) where np is the number of rows of y.

plot(y,name1,value1,...,nameN,valueN)

plot(y,spec,name1,value1,...,nameN,valueN)

• name1, ..., nameN are attribute names, and value1, ..., valueN are their associated values.
• Attribute values specified by the specification string spec, can be overwritten by value1, ..., valueN.

plot(x,y)

plot(x,y,spec)

plot(x,y,name1,value1,...,nameN,valueN)

plot(x,y,spec,name1,value1,...,nameN,valueN)

• x and y should be scalars, vectors, or matrices of numeric values.

• If y has size [m, n], where m >= 1 and n >= 1, then x should be either a matrix of the same size, or a vector of length m or n:

  • If x is a matrix, then n lines of m data points will be plotted.
  • If x is a vector of length m, then n lines of m data points will be plotted.
  • If x is a vector of length n, then m lines of n data points will be plotted.

• If x or y is complex, only the real parts will be used.
• See plot(y, 'spec') above for the description of the line specification string spec.
• name1, ..., nameN are attribute names, and value1, ..., valueN are their associated values.

plot(x1,y1,spec1,...,xM,yM,specM,name1,value1,...,nameN,valueN)

• x1, ..., xM and y1, ..., yM are as described above in plot(x, y).
• spec1, ..., specM are as described above in plot(y, spec). Any of spec1, ..., specM can be omitted.

• name1, ..., nameN are attribute names, and value1, ..., valueN are their associated values.

Line Specification String

• A line specification string, also known as spec, is a concatenation of attribute values.
• The attributes available for a line specification string are color ('color'), line style ('lineStyle') and marker style ('marker'). When the color attribute is set, it changes the line color and marker edge color simultaneously.
• For example, 'r-..' means a red (r) dash-dotted line (-.) with point markers (.).
• The order is not important. For example, 'r-..' and '.-.r' give the same result.
• If multiple values are specified for a single attribute, only the last value will assigned.
• If an attribute's value is not specified, the default value will be used. For example, '--' means a blue dashed line without marker.

Attribute Names and Values

The following show the attribute names and their associated values.

LineStyle

The default line style is 'none' if the marker is specified. If no marker is specified, the default line style is '-'.

'Color'

If the line color is not specified, it is assigned to blue, red, orange, purple, magenta, green, cyan or yellow in a cyclic manner. More precisely, the ${\rm mod}(i,n)$-th color in this list is used in the $i$-th line, where $n = 8$ is the total number of colors. For example, the 10-th line has red color. [r,g,b] cannot be used in a specification string.

'Marker'

MarkerEdgeColor

The values are the same as those for Color above.

MarkerEdgeColor

The values are the same as those for Color above.

MarkerSize

It should be a positive number. The default size is 6.0

DisplayName

It is the name shown in the legend. It should be given as a character vector. The default value is "Line".