Tutorial Video
VIDEO
Plotting a Basic Figure
Supposing we have the following code:
x=[ 1: 10] ' ; y=2*x; z=x. ^2; figure ; plot( x,y); hold ( ' on' ) ; scatter( x,y,z); hold( ' off' ) ; figure ;
We generate the following bland looking figures below:
Selecting the Figure we Wish to Modify:
Now supposing we want to go back to figure 1 and modify the existing line and scatter plot. First we will need to select figure 1. To do this we can either select figure 1 with the mouse or type:
figure( 1)
Assigning the Figure, Axes and Plots to Variable Names
Now we can assign the selected figure to a variable using get current figure gcf
MyFigure=gcf
If we expand all properties we can see Children: [1×1 Axes]
We can now assign the Axes to another variable using:
MyAxes=MyFigure. Children
If we expand all properties we can see Children: [2×1 Graphics]
We can look at this in more detail using:
MyGraphics=MyAxes. Children
We can see the first value in the MyGraphics Array is the Scatter Plot and the second value is the Line Plot.
We can assign the Scatter Plot to a variable:
MyScatter=MyGraphics( 1)
If we expand all properties we can see
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Annotation: [1×1 matlab.graphics.eventdata.Annotation]Marker : 'o'MarkerEdgeAlpha : 1MarkerEdgeColor : 'flat'MarkerFaceAlpha : 1MarkerFaceColor : 'none'SizeData : [1×10 double]XData : [1×10 double]YData : [1×10 double]
We can change these properties using dot indexing:
MyScatter. XData=[ 2: 2: 20] ; MyScatter. YData=[ 4: 4: 40] ; MyScatter. SizeData=[ 40: -4: 4] ; MyScatter. Marker=' d ' ; MyScatter. LineWidth=2; MyScatter. MarkerEdgeColor=[ 0, 1, 1]; MyScatter. MarkerEdgeAlpha=0.2; MyScatter. MarkerFaceColor=' m ' ; MyScatter. MarkerFaceAlpha=0.5;
We can now assign the Line Plot to a variable:
MyLine=MyGraphics(2)
If we expand all properties we can see
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AlignVertexCenters: 'off'Color : [0 0.4470 0.7410]LineStyle : '-'LineWidth : 0.5000XData : [1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10]YData : [2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20]
Modification Using Dot Indexing
We can change these properties using dot indexing:
MyLine. Color=' r ' ; . LineStyle=' : ' ; . LineWidth=2; . XData=[ 2: 2: 20] ; . YData=[ 4: 4: 40];
We can now look at the full properties of MyAxes.
MyAxes
If we expand these properties we can see:
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ALim: [0 1]Box : 'on'Color : [1 1 1]FontAngle : 'normal'FontName : 'Helvetica'FontSize : 10GridAlpha: 0.1500GridColor : [0.1500 0.1500 0.1500]LineWidth : 0.5000MinorGridColor : [0.1000 0.1000 0.1000]MinorGridLineStyle : ':'XColor : [0.1500 0.1500 0.1500]XGrid : 'off'XLim : [2 20]XMinorGrid : 'off'XScale : 'linear'YAxisLocation : 'left'YLim : [0 40]YMinorGrid : 'off'YMinorTick : 'off'YScale : 'linear'
These settings can also be adjusted:
MyAxes. Color=[165/255 ,165/255 ,165/255 ];
If we change the color back to white and remove the box
MyAxes. Color=[255/255 ,255/255 ,255/255 ]; MyAxes. Box=0;
We can change the font, the font size and make it italic:
MyAxes. FontName='Calibri ' ; . FontSize=20; . FontAngle=' italic ' ;
We can change the Axes Locations:
MyAxes. XAxisLocation=' top ' ; . YAxisLocation=' right ' ;
We can change the Axes Limits to show a negative value and set the Axes Origins to be at the origin:
MyAxes. XAxisLocation='origin ' ; . YAxisLocation=' origin ' ; . XLim=[-30,30]; . YLim=[-60,60];
We can change the width and color of the Axes:
MyAxes. LineWidth=2; . XColor=' m '; . YColor=' g ';
We can turn on the Major Grid:
MyAxes. XGrid=1; . YGrid=1;
We can change the transparency of the grid:
MyAxes. GridAlpha=1;
We can also have a Minor Grid:
MyAxes. XMinorGrid=1; . YMinorGrid=1; . MinorGridColor=' c ' ; . MinorGridLineStyle=' : ' ;
For the Axes we have:
MyAxes. XLabel
We can change the String using:
MyAxes. XLabel. String={ ' x ' } ; . YLabel. String={ ' y ' } ; . Title. String={ ' x vs y ' } ;
We can look at the Legend
MyAxes. Legend
Okay it says Graphic place holder. We can however type in:
legend( ' A ' ,' B ' ) . Legend
If we click all properties we can see
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AutoUpdate: 'on'Box : 'on'Color : [1 1 1]FontAngle : 'italic'FontName : 'Calibri'FontSize : 18Location : 'northeast'Position : [0.7696 0.7163 0.1161 0.1536]
This shows a legend in a very inconvenient place:
Now that we have the Legend we can use Dot Indexing to change it's properties:
MyAxes. Legend. Location=' SouthWest ' ; . Legend. Box=1; . Legend. Color=[1 ,1 ,0 ]; . Legend. FontName=' Arial ' ; . Legend. FontAngle=' normal ' ; . Legend. FontSize=48;
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