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5.4: Line Plotting

  • Page ID
    55654
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    We include line plotting in this chapter as we now have the necessary pieces: single-index arrays, and characters. We do not present all the various options since these can readily be found by >> help plot or the documentation. However, we do provide a template which you can use and adapt accordingly.

    %A sample plotting script - by Justin Miller

    %----------- linear-linear plotting, sine and cosines ---------------

    L = 2*pi; %Define the ending angle

    N = 100; %Define number of angle segments

    xpts = (L/N)*[0:N]; %Define a set of angles for plotting (in radians)

    %This could also be done using

    %xpts = linspace(0,L,N+1);

    sin_values = sin(xpts); %Sine vector of each angle

    cos_values = cos(xpts); %Cosine vector of each angle

    figure %Create a figure window to draw the plots

    plot(xpts,sin_values,'b-') %Plot the sine values in a blue line

    hold on %Hold the current figure when plotting

    %the next figure

    plot(xpts,cos_values,'r--') %Plot the cosine values in a red dashed line

    h_sincos_plot = gcf; %Get the handle of the current figure

    ha_sincos_axis = gca; %Get the handle of the current axis

    axis([0,xpts(end),-1.1,1.1]) %Set the x and y axes [xmin,xmax,ymin,ymax]

    set(ha_sincos_axis,'XTick',0:pi/2:2*pi) %Set the location of the x tick marks

    set(ha_sincos_axis,'YTick',-1:0.2:1) %Set the location of the y tick marks

    set(ha_sincos_axis,'XTickLabel',{'0','pi/2','pi','3*pi/2','2*pi'})

    %Set the names of each x tick mark

    xlabel('Angle (radians)') %Give a label name to the x axis

    ylabel('Trigonomic output') %Give a label name to the y axis

    title(['Plot of sin and cos from x = ',num2str(xpts(1)), ...

    ' to x = ',num2str(xpts(end))])

    %Give the figure a title

    legend('sin','cos','location','best') %Provide a legend and tell matlab to place

    %it in the best location

    saveas(h_sincos_plot,'sin_cos.fig') %Take the figure specified by handle

    %"h_sincos_plot" and save it

    %as "sin_cos.fig" in the working directory

    %----------- log-linear plotting, exponential ---------------

    clear all

    L = 5;

    N = 100;

    x = (L/N)*[0:N];

    y = 2*exp(x);

    figure

    semilogy(x,y,'b-') %Create a plot where only the y axis is in log scale

    %semilogx would plot only the x axis in log scale

    xlabel('x')

    ylabel('y')

    title(['Log-Linear plot of y = 2*exp(x) from x = ',num2str(x(1)), ...

    ' to x = ',num2str(x(end))])

    saveas(gcf,'exp.fig')

    %----------- log-log plotting, polynomials ---------------

    clear all

    L = 10^2;

    N = 100;

    x= (L/N)*[0:N];

    y = 2*(x.^3);

    figure

    loglog(x,y,'b-') %Create a plot where both axes are in log scale

    xlabel('x')

    ylabel('y')

    title(['Log-Log plot of y = 2x^3 from x = ',num2str(x(1)), ...

    ' to x = ',num2str(x(end))])

    saveas(gcf,'poly.fig')

    MATLAB also has extensive "3-D" plotting capabilities.


    This page titled 5.4: Line Plotting is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Masayuki Yano, James Douglass Penn, George Konidaris, & Anthony T Patera (MIT OpenCourseWare) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.