= MATLAB Plot =

The '''`plot`''' function creates a 2D graphic of a curve.

<<TableOfContents>>

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== Usage ==

{{{
x = 0:pi/100:2*pi;
y = sin(x);

figure;
plot(x,y);
}}}

See also [[MATLAB/FiguresAndRelatedCommands|figures and related commands]].

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== Line Specifications ==

Basic line specifications can be made with a single string argument. More detailed specifications require named properties to be set individually.



=== Shorthand ===

Lines and markers are styled by passing a symbolic string as an argument. This string is composed of component specifications.

Line components are styled with the following specifications:

||'''Name''' ||'''Specification'''||
||Solid      ||`-` ||
||Dashed     ||`--`||
||Dotted     ||`:` ||
||Dash-dotted||`-.`||

Marker components are styled with the following specifications:

||'''Name'''                ||'''Specification'''||
||Circle                    ||`o`        ||
||Plus sign                 ||`+`        ||
||Asterisk                  ||`*`        ||
||Point                     ||`.`        ||
||Cross                     ||`x`        ||
||Horizontal line           ||`_`        ||
||Vertical line             ||`|`        ||
||Square                    ||`s`        ||
||Diamond                   ||`d`        ||
||Upward-pointing triangle  ||`^`        ||
||Downward-pointing triangle||`v`        ||
||Right-pointing triangle   ||`>`        ||
||Left-pointing triangle    ||`<`        ||
||Pentagram                 ||`pentagram`||
||Hexagram                  ||`hexagram` ||

Note that "-." means a dash-dotted line, whereas ".-" means point markers and a line. This also demonstrates that line specifications do not need to follow an order.

Lastly, there are color components. As an example, red is specified by `r`. This is not generally useful though, as any plot with multiple lines should use different colors for each. Colors are automatically assigned in a reasonable manner.

||'''Name'''||'''Specification''||'''Equivalent RGB Triplet'''||'''Equivalent hexadecimal code'''||
||Red       ||`r`               ||`[1 0 0]`                   ||`"#FF0000"`||
||Green     ||`g`               ||`[0 1 0]`                   ||`"#00FF00"`||
||Blue      ||`b`               ||`[0 0 1]`                   ||`"#0000FF"`||
||Cyan      ||`c`               ||`[0 1 1]`                   ||`"#00FFFF"`||
||Magenta   ||`m`               ||`[1 0 1]`                   ||`"#FF00FF"`||
||Yellow    ||`y`               ||`[1 1 0]`                   ||`"#FFFF00"`||
||Black     ||`k`               ||`[0 0 0]`                   ||`"#000000"`||
||White     ||`w`               ||`[1 1 1]`                   ||`"#FFFFFF"`||
||None      ||`none`            ||                            || ||

The equivalences shown above are not useful for this shorthand, but are good to note for the below.



=== Properties ===

Try either of the following:

{{{
plot(x,y,LineWidth=3)
plot(x,y,"LineWidth",3)
}}}

Note that the latter is considered the legacy, backwards-compatible method.

||'''Name'''          ||'''Meaning'''              ||'''Domain'''          ||'''Example'''   ||'''Default'''||
||`Color`             ||Line color                 ||                      ||`"r"`, `[1 0 0]`||             ||
||`LineStyle`         ||Line style                 ||                      ||`"--"`          ||`"-"`        ||
||`LineWidth`         ||Line width                 ||Positive numbers (pts)||                ||0.5          ||
||`Marker`            ||Marker style               ||                      ||`"o"`           ||`"none"`     ||
||`MarkerIndices`     ||Markers to display         ||Positive numbers      ||`[1 5 10]`      ||`1:end`      ||
||`MarkerEdgeColor`   ||Marker outline color       ||                      ||`"r"`, `[1 0 0]`||`"auto"`     ||
||`MarkerFaceColor`   ||Marker fill color          ||                      ||`"r"`, `[1 0 0]`||`"none"`     ||
||`MarkerSize`        ||Marker size                ||positive numbers (pts)||                ||6            ||
||`DatetimeTickFormat`||Format string for datetimes||                      ||`"yyyy-MM-dd"`  ||             ||
||`DurationTickFormat`||Format string for durations||                      ||`"dd:hh:mm:ss"` ||             ||



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