Specifying the Axes or Figure :: Graphics (Getting Started)

Getting Started

Specifying the Axes or Figure

MATLAB always creates an axes or figure if one does not exist when you issue a plotting command. However, when you are creating a graphics M-file, it is good practice to explicitly create and specify the parent axes and figure, particularly if others will use your program. Specifying the parent prevents the following problems:

Your M-file overwrites the graph in the current figure. Note that a figure becomes the current figure whenever a user clicks on it.
The current figure might be in an unexpected state and not behave as your program expects.

The following examples shows a simple M-file that plots a function and the mean of the function over the specified range:

function myfunc(x)
% x = -10:.005:40; Here's a value you can use for x
y = [1.5*cos(x) + 6*exp(-.1*x) + exp(.07*x).*sin(3*x)];
ym = mean(y);
hfig = figure('Name','Function and Mean',...
        'Pointer','fullcrosshair');
hax = axes('Parent',hfig);
plot(hax,x,y)
hold on
plot(hax,[min(x) max(x)],[ym ym],'Color','red')
hold off
ylab = get(hax,'YTick');
set(hax,'YTick',sort([ylab ym]))
title ('y = 1.5cos(x) + 6e^{-0.1x} + e^{0.07x}sin(3x)')
xlabel('X Axis'); ylabel('Y Axis')

Setting Object Properties Finding the Handles of Existing Objects