MATLAB – Lecture#5

Plots in MATLAB / Chapter 5

Topics Covered:
1. Plotting basic 2-D/3-D plots.

The plot command.

The fplot command.

Plotting multiple graphs in the same plot.
Formatting plots.
 MAKING X-Y PLOTS

MATLAB has many functions and commands that can be used to

create various types of plots.
 EXAMPLE OF A 2-D PLOT
Plot title Legend
Light Intensity as a Function of Distance
1200
Theory
y axis Experiment

label 1000

Text
Tick-mark
800
INTENSITY (lux)

Comparison between theory and experiment.

600

400
Data symbol

200

0
8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
DISTANCE (cm)
x axis Tick-mark label
label
 TWO-DIMENSIONAL plot() COMMAND
The basic 2-D plot command is:

plot(x,y)

where x is a vector (one dimensional array), and y is a vector.

Both vectors must have the same number of elements.

❖ The plot command creates a single curve with the x values on

the abscissa (horizontal axis) and the y values on the ordinate
(vertical axis).

❖ The curve is made from segments of lines that connect the

points that are defined by the x and y coordinates of the
elements in the two vectors.
 CREATING THE X AND Y VECTORS

❖ If data is given, the information is entered as the elements of the

vectors x and y.

❖ If the values ofy are determined by a function from the values

of x, than a vector x is created first, and then the values of y
are calculated for each value of x. The spacing (difference)
between the elements of x must be such that the plotted curve
will show the details of the function.
 PLOT OF GIVEN DATA

Given data:

x 1 2 3 5 7 7.5 8 10

y 2 6.5 7 7 5.5 4 6 8

A plot can be created by the commands shown below. This can be

done in the Command Window, or by writing and then running a
script file.

>> x=[1 2 3 5 7 7.5 8 10];

>> y=[2 6.5 7 7 5.5 4 6 8];
>> plot(x,y)

Once the plot command is executed, the Figure Window opens with
the following plot.
PLOT OF GIVEN DATA
 LINE SPECIFIERS IN THE plot() COMMAND

Line specifiers can be added in the plot command to:

➢ Specify the style of the line.
➢ Specify the color of the line.
➢ Specify the type of the markers (if markers are desired).

plot(x,y,’line specifiers’)
 LINE SPECIFIERS IN THE plot() COMMAND

plot(x,y,‘line specifiers’)

Line Specifier Line Specifier Marker Specifier

Style Color Type

Solid - red r plus sign +

dotted : green g circle o
dashed -- blue b asterisk *
dash-dot -. Cyan c point .
magenta m square s
yellow y diamond d
black k
 LINE SPECIFIERS IN THE plot() COMMAND

➢ The specifiers are typed inside the plot() command as strings.

➢ Within the string the specifiers can be typed in any order.

➢ The specifiers are optional. This means that none, one, two, or
all the three can be included in a command.
EXAMPLES:
plot(x,y) A solid blue line connects the points with no markers.
plot(x,y,’r’) A solid red line connects the points with no markers.
plot(x,y,’--y’) A yellow dashed line connects the points.
plot(x,y,’*’) The points are marked with * (no line between the
points.)
plot(x,y,’g:d’) A green dotted line connects the points which are
marked with diamond markers.
 PLOT OF GIVEN DATA USING LINE
SPECIFIERS IN THE plot() COMMAND

Year 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994

Sales (M) 127 130 136 145 158 178 211

>> year = [1988:1:1994];

>> sales = [127, 130, 136, 145, 158, 178, 211];
>> plot(year,sales,'--r*')

Line Specifiers:
dashed red line and
asterisk markers.
 PLOT OF GIVEN DATA USING LINE
SPECIFIERS IN THE plot() COMMAND

Dashed red line and

asterisk markers.
 CREATING A PLOT OF A FUNCTION

−0.5 x
Consider: y = 3.5 cos(6 x) for − 2  x  4
A script file for plotting the function is:

% A script file that creates a plot of

% the function: 3.5^(-0.5x)*cos(6x)
x = [-2:0.01:4]; Creating a vector with spacing of 0.01.
y = 3.5.^(-0.5*x).*cos(6*x);
Calculating a value of y
plot(x,y) for each x.

Once the plot command is executed, the Figure Window opens with
the following plot.
 A PLOT OF A FUNCTION
−0.5 x
y = 3.5 cos(6 x) for − 2  x  4
 CREATING A PLOT OF A FUNCTION
If the vector x is created with large spacing, the graph is not accurate.
Below is the previous plot with spacing of 0.3.

x = [-2:0.3:4];
y = 3.5.^(-0.5*x).*cos(6*x);
plot(x,y)
 THE fplot COMMAND

The fplot command can be used to plot a function

with the form: y = f(x)

fplot(‘function’,limits)

➢ The function is typed in as a string.

➢ The limits is a vector with the domain of x, and optionally with limits
of the y axis:

[xmin,xmax] or [xmin,xmax,ymin,ymax]
➢ Line specifiers can be added.
PLOT OF A FUNCTION WITH THE fplot() COMMAND

A plot of: y = x 2 + 4 sin(2 x) − 1 for − 3  x  3

>> fplot('x^2 + 4 * sin(2*x) - 1', [-3 3])

PLOTTING MULTIPLE GRAPHS IN THE SAME PLOT

Plotting two (or more) graphs in one plot:

1. Using the plot command.

2. Using the hold on, hold off commands.
 USING THE plot() COMMAND TO PLOT
MULTIPLE GRAPHS IN THE SAME PLOT

plot(x,y,u,v,t,h)

Plots three graphs in the same plot:

y versus x, v versus u, and h versus t.

➢ By default, MATLAB makes the curves in different colors.

➢ Additional curves can be added.
➢ The curves can have a specific style by adding specifiers after
each pair, for example:

plot(x,y,’-b’,u,v,’—r’,t,h,’g:’)
 USING THE plot() COMMAND TO PLOT
MULTIPLE GRAPHS IN THE SAME PLOT

Plot of the function, y = 3x3 − 26x + 10 and its first and second
derivatives, for − 2  x  4 , all in the same plot.

x = [-2:0.01:4]; vector x with the domain of the function.

y = 3*x.^3-26*x+6; Vector y with the function value at each x.
−2 x  4

yd = 9*x.^2-26; Vector yd with values of the first derivative.

ydd = 18*x; Vector ydd with values of the second derivative.
−2 x  4

plot(x,y,'-b',x,yd,'--r',x,ydd,':k')

Create three graphs, y vs. x (solid blue

line), yd vs. x (dashed red line), and ydd
vs. x (dotted black line) in the same figure.
USING THE plot() COMMAND TO PLOT
MULTIPLE GRAPHS IN THE SAME PLOT

120

100

80

60

40

20

-20

-40
-2 -1 0 1 2 3 4
USING THE hold on, hold off, COMMANDS
TO PLOT MULTIPLE GRAPHS IN THE SAME PLOT

hold on Holds the current plot and all axis properties so that
subsequent plot commands add to the existing plot.

hold off Returns to the default mode whereby plot commands

erase the previous plots and reset all axis properties
before drawing new plots.

This method is useful when all the information (vectors) used for
the plotting is not available a the same time.
 USING THE hold on, hold off, COMMANDS
TO PLOT MULTIPLE GRAPHS IN THE SAME PLOT
Plot of the function, y = 3x3 − 26x + 10 and its first and second
derivatives, for − 2  x  4 all in the same plot.

x = [-2:0.01:4];
y = 3*x.^3-26*x+6;
yd = 9*x.^2-26;
ydd = 18*x;
plot(x,y,'-b') First graph is created.
hold on
plot(x,yd,'--r')
Two more graphs are created.
plot(x,ydd,':k')
hold off
 Subplots
• subplot(m,n,p) : create a subplot in an array of axes

>> subplot(2,3,1);
P=1 P=2 P=3

>> subplot(2,3,4);

m
P=4

n
Subplots Example 1
Subplots Example 2
Subplots Example 3
 EXAMPLE OF A FORMATTED 2-D PLOT
Plot title
Light Intensity as a Function of Distance
1200 Legend
Theory
y axis Experiment

label 1000

Text
800
Tick-mark
INTENSITY (lux)

Comparison between theory and experiment.

600

400
Data symbol
200

0
8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
DISTANCE (cm)
x axis Tick-mark label
label
 FORMATTING PLOTS

A plot can be formatted to have a required appearance.

With formatting you can:

➢ Add title to the plot.

➢ Add labels to axes.
➢ Change range of the axes.
➢ Add legend.
➢ Add text blocks.
➢ Add grid.
 FORMATTING PLOTS

There are two methods to format a plot:

1. Formatting commands.
In this method commands, that make changes or additions to
the plot, are entered after the plot() command. This can be
done in the Command Window, or as part of a program in a
script file.

2. Formatting the plot interactively in the Figure Window.

In this method the plot is formatted by clicking on the plot and
using the menu to make changes or add details.
 FORMATTING COMMANDS

title(‘string’)
Adds the string as a title at the top of the plot.

xlabel(‘string’)
Adds the string as a label to the x-axis.

ylabel(‘string’)
Adds the string as a label to the y-axis.

axis([xmin xmax ymin ymax])

Sets the minimum and maximum limits of the x- and y-axes.
 FORMATTING COMMANDS

legend(‘string1’,’string2’,’string3’)
Creates a legend using the strings to label various curves (when
several curves are in one plot). The location of the legend is
specified by the mouse.

text(x,y,’string’)
Places the string (text) on the plot at coordinate x,y relative to
the plot axes.

gtext(‘string’)
Places the string (text) on the plot. When the command
executes the figure window pops and the text location is clicked
with the mouse.
 FORMATTING COMMANDS

Creates a legend using the strings to label various

curves (when several curves are in one plot). The
location of the legend is specified by the pos.
 EXAMPLE OF A FORMATTED PLOT
Below is a script file of the formatted light intensity plot (2nd slide).
(Some of the formatting options were not covered in the lectures,
but are described in the book)

x=[10:0.1:22]; Creating vector x for plotting the theoretical curve.

y=95000./x.^2; Creating vector y for plotting the theoretical curve.
xd=[10:2:22]; Creating a vector with coordinates of data points.
yd=[950 640 460 340 250 180 140]; Creating a vector with
light intensity from data.
plot(x,y,'-','LineWidth',1.0)
hold on
plot(xd,yd,'ro--','linewidth',1.0,'markersize',10)
hold off
 EXAMPLE OF A FORMATTED PLOT

Formatting of the light intensity plot (cont.)

xlabel('DISTANCE (cm)')
Labels for the axes.
ylabel('INTENSITY (lux)')
Title for the plot.
title('\fontname{Arial}Light Intensity as a Function of
Distance','FontSize',14)
axis([8 24 0 1200]) Setting limits of the axes.
text(14,700,'Comparison between theory and
Creating text.
experiment.','EdgeColor','r','LineWidth',2)
legend('Theory','Experiment',0) Creating a legend.

The plot that is obtained is shown again in the next slide.

EXAMPLE OF A FORMATTED PLOT
 FORMATTING A PLOT IN THE FIGURE WINDOW

Once a figure window is open, the figure can be formatted interactively.

Use the insert menu to

Use Figure, Click here to start the

Axes, and plot edit mode.
Current Object-
Properties in
the Edit menu
 Plotting in 3-D
There are also ways to plot in multiple dimensions in MATLAB. One type
of 3-D plot that may be useful is a surface plot, which requires you to
generate some kind of x-y plane and then apply a 3rd function as the z
dimension.
Specialized Plotting Routines
Specialized Plotting Routines
(Continued)
 Plots With Logarithmic Axes
Many science and engineering applications
require plots in which one or both axes have a
logarithmic (log) scale. Log scales provide
means for presenting data over a wide range
of values.
Exercise
FUNCTIONS IN MATLAB
1. The convention for naming functions is the same
as for variables. A function name must start with a
letter, should be meaningful, should not use the
name of an existing function, and should not be
excessively long.
2. It is important that you give meaningful variable
names to variables inside a function that you
write, so that you and others can understand what
the function does.
3. Comments become extremely important in
functions. Comments help both you and anyone
who might use the function to understand what it
does.
Anonymous Functions

An anonymous function is a simple (one-line) user-defined function

that is defined without creating a separate function file (M-file).
Anonymous functions can be constructed in the Command Window,
within a script file, or inside a regular user-defined function. An
anonymous function is created by typing the following command:
SUBFUNCTIONS

• M-files can contain code for more than one function. Additional
functions within the file are called subfunctions, and these are only
visible to the primary function or to other subfunctions in the same
file.
• Each subfunction begins with its own function definition line. The
functions immediately follow each other. The various subfunctions
can occur in any order, as long as the primary function appears first
• Subfunctions cannot access variables used by other subfunctions,
even within the same M-file, or variables used by the primary
function of that M-file, unless you declare them as global within the
pertinent functions, or pass them as arguments.
function [avg, med] = newstats(u) % Primary function
% NEWSTATS Find mean and median with internal functions.
n = length(u);
avg = mean(u, n);
med = median(u, n);

function a = mean(v, n) % Subfunction

% Calculate average.
a = sum(v)/n;

function m = median(v, n) % Subfunction

% Calculate median.
w = sort(v);
if rem(n, 2) == 1
m = w((n+1) / 2);
else
m = (w(n/2) + w(n/2+1)) / 2;
end
Exercise

write a function that converts Celsius temperatures into Fahrenheit.

Write a function that takes force, displacement, and angle (in degrees)
as input and outputs work. Use MATLAB help to find a cosine function
that uses degrees.