MATLAB Plotting Basics and Functions

Vocabulary flashcards covering essential MATLAB plotting commands, options, and example plot types from the lecture notes.

plot()

MATLAB function for creating 2-D line graphs.

xlabel()

Adds a label to the x-axis of a plot.

ylabel()

Adds a label to the y-axis of a plot.

title()

Adds a title to the current axes.

grid on

Turns on a background grid to aid visual interpretation.

Line Styles

Patterns such as '-', '--', ':', and '-.' that control how lines are drawn.

Markers

Symbols like 'o', 's', '*', 'd' that mark individual data points on a plot.

hold on / hold off

Keeps current plot so additional data can be added / releases it.

legend()

Adds a descriptive label for each plotted data series.

bar()

Creates a bar chart for categorical or numerical data.

histogram()

Displays the distribution of data by grouping values into bins.

scatter()

Creates a scatter plot showing the relationship between two variables.

pie()

Generates a pie chart to show proportional data.

subplot()

Divides a figure window into a grid of sub-axes for multiple plots.

plot3()

Plots 3-D line data with x, y, and z coordinates.

meshgrid()

Generates 2-D grids for X and Y suitable for surface or mesh plots.

surf()

Creates a 3-D colored surface plot from X, Y, Z matrices.

shading interp

Interpolates colors across faces for smooth 3-D shading.

colorbar

Displays a color scale indicating data-to-color mapping.

saveas()

Saves the current figure to a file (e.g., PNG, PDF).

Sine Wave Example

Line plot of y = sin(x); demonstrates basic plotting and customization.

Bar Chart Example

Blue bars comparing categories A–D; illustrates categorical plotting.

Histogram Example

Magenta histogram with 20 bins of normally distributed random data.

Scatter Plot Example

Red filled dots sized at 100; visualizes two random 10-range variables.

3D Surface Plot

Plot of Z = sin(\sqrt{X^2+Y^2}) over a grid; shows shaded, colored surface.