Matlab Laboratory 5.

2-D and3-D plots in Matlab

Aim of the laboratory

 2D and 3D graphical representations
 Customization of Matlab plots
Necessary equipment
 Workstations with MATLAB
Theoretical Approach
Graphical representations in Matlab are a very useful tool for function visualization. A graph, or a
plot, can provide valuable information for function analysis and characterization. For a proper
graphical representation, one must follow some basic steps:
 Definition of the function data,
 Definition of the plot interface,
 Plotting the function,
 Editing the plot properties.
These steps will first be detailed on 2-dimensional plots, and then they will be illustrated for 3-
dimensional plots as well.
2-dimensional plots
A 2-dimensional plot prints the graphical representation of a one-variable function y, defined as
𝑦 = 𝑓(𝑥)
Graphical representation is performed in a 2-dimensional coordinate system, where the function
variable x is placed along the horizontal axis and the function values y are placed along the vertical
axis. The graphical representation is exemplified using the plot function:
plot(x,y);

where both arguments of the plot function are vectors which must have the same length.

Definition of the function data

Definition of the function data for a 2-D plot requires:
 definition of the variable variation domain,
 expression of the function along the variable variation domain.
Consider for example the definition of a sine wave:
x = -pi:pi/100:pi;
y_sin = sin(x);
y_cos = cos(x);

The sine wave is defined on a 2π signal period. Accordingly, the variable was normalized to the
–π to π variation domain with a π/100 step size. Another example is the definition of a square wave
with an arbitrary duty cycle, on the same variable variation domain x defined beforehand:
duty = 30;
y_sq = square(x,duty);

as well as a triangular wave with an arbitrary skew:

skew = 0.5;
y_tr = sawtooth(x,skew);

Further signal waveforms which can be defined in Matlab are chirp, cos, diric, gauspuls,
pulstran, rectpuls, sinc and tripuls, which can be consulted in the Matlab help.
In order to have an arbitrary function definition domain, e.g. time domain, one should consider the
relationship between frequency and time as follows
f = 50; % frequency
per = 1/f; % period
t = 0:per/100:4*per; % time domain
x = 2 * pi * f * t; % variable definition domain

This code sequence defines a 4 period variable variation domain with a 100 point per period step
size. To be noticed is that the 100 points per period step size is a useful compromise between
resolution and data size. If a function requires a smaller resolution, a smaller step size can be
chosen. This however results in larger data structures.
Another issue to be considered when defining the time domain is having multiple waveforms with
different frequencies defined over the same variable variation domain. Regardless of the number
of signals to be defined, the time domain should be the same and should be defined for the smallest
frequency, i.e. the largest period. Accordingly, the higher frequency signals will exhibit a higher
number of oscillations in the same time interval:
f1 = 50; % frequency for sin1
f2 = 200 % frequency for sin2
per = 1/f1; % period
t = 0:per/100:4*per; % time domain
x1 = 2 * pi * f1 * t; % variable definition domain for sin1
x2 = 2 * pi * f2 * t; % variable definition domain for sin2, same t as
% for sin1
Definition of the plot interface
A new plot window is created using the figure function. Consider for example plotting the sine
wave defined in the previous section.
figure();
plot(x,y_sin);

The function plot resulting after running this Matlab section is illustrated in figure 1.
A name can be added to the plot window using:
figure('Name','Sine Waves','NumberTitle','off');

For further properties of the figure function consult the Matlab help browser.
If multiple plot windows are required, it is useful to consider numbering the windows. Then, one
may also switch in-between already opened windows:

figure(1); % creates new plot window numbered ‘Figure 1’

plot(x,y_sin);
figure(2); % creates new plot window numbered ‘Figure 2’
plot(x,y_sq);
figure(3); % creates new plot window numbered ‘Figure 3’
plot(x,y_tr);
figure(1); % switches back to plot window numbered ‘Figure 1’

Plotting a new function into an existing window will overwrite the former plot. In order to keep
the former plot in the same window, one is required to activate the hold function as follows
figure(); % creates new plot window numbered ‘Figure 1’
plot(x,y_sin);
hold on;
plot(x,y_cos);

The result is illustrated in figure 2.

To deactivate the hold function within a plot window, which will cause overwriting all plots from
that window at the next plot instruction, one must type
hold off;

The plot window may further be divided into subplots using the subplot function as follows. The
syntax of the subplot function is
subplot(n,m,p)
 Figure 1 Figure 2
The subplot function performs the division of the plotting window into m x n sub-windows, and
activates the pth sub-window, counted from left to right and from top to bottom. Consider for
exemplification
figure();
subplot(2,2,1);
plot(t,y_sin);
subplot(2,2,2);
plot(t,y_cos);
subplot(2,2,3);
plot(x,y_sq);
subplot(2,2,4);
plot(x,y_tr);

with the result illustrated in figure 3.

Figure 3
Plotting the function
The plot function is indeed the most straightforward way to plot the shape of a function in Matlab:
plot(x,y);

The plot function basically connects the x(i) and y(i) coordinate points, with i ranging from 1 to
length(y). Accordingly, the function plot illustrates the shape of the function y vs. the function
definition domain x.
To be noticed is that if the x argument is missing, the function plot will illustrate the function y vs.
a linear space ranging from 1 to length(y):
plot(y);

Then again, the plot function takes pairs of vectors xk and yk, k=1…n, where yk is the function to
be plotted and xk is the corresponding function definition domain.
plot(x1,y1,x2,y2,x3,y3);

In this case, the n functions are plotted simultaneously in the same figure. The same result would
have been achieved with turning on the hold function for the individual plots.

Editing the plot properties

Editing the plot properties basically refers to editing all the elements of the function plot:
 editing the plot line,
 naming the plot
 labeling the axes,
 placing grids,
 printing text on the plot,
 etc.
For plot editing, the syntax of the plot function changes to
plot(x,y,S);

where S is the property specifier, and defines the specifications regarding line style, color and
markers.
The line style specifiers are listed in Table 1.
 Table 1
Specifier Line Style
‘–’ Solid line (default)
‘– –’ Dashed line
‘:’ Dotted line
‘-.’ Dash-dotted line
‘none’ No line

The color specifiers are listed in Table 2.

Table 2
Specifier Color
‘r’ Red
‘g’ Green
‘b’ Blue
‘c’ Cyan
‘m’ Magenta
‘y’ Yellow
‘k’ Black
‘w’ While

The marker specifiers are listed in Table 3.

Table 3
Specifier Marker
‘+’ Plus sign
‘o’ Circle
‘*’ Asterisk
‘.’ Point
‘x’ Cross
'square' or 's' Square
'diamond' or 'd' Diamond
‘^’ Upward-pointing triangle
‘v’ Downward-pointing triangle
‘>’ Right-pointing triangle
‘<’ Left-pointing triangle
‘pentagram’ or ‘p’ Five-pointed star (pentagram)
‘hexagram’ or ‘h''’ Six-pointed star (hexagram)
‘none’ No marker (default)
The S specifier is then a string consisting of the individual specifiers listed in Tables 1, 2 and 3.
For exemplification, consider plotting one period of a sine and cosine wave in the same figure
using different colors:
x = -pi:0.1:pi;
y_sin = sin(x);
y_cos = cos(x);

Fig1=figure('Name','Sine Waves','NumberTitle','off');
plot(x,y_sin,'r',x,y_cos,'b');

Further on, consider for exemplification changing the line style as follows.
plot(x,y_sin,':r',x,y_cos,'--b');

Markers can also be added to the function plot considering for example
plot(x,y_sin,':r+',x,y_cos,'--bo');

Additionally, plot legend can be added with typing

legend('sine','cosine');

The result is illustrated in figure 4

Further on, the plot function allows to change the line width, the marker size, the marker color and
the marker edge color. For this purpose, one must use pairs of specifier and values as follows
[Matlab help]:
 LineWidth – specifies the width in points of the line,
 MarkerEdgeColor – specifies the color of the marker or the edge color for filled markers,
 MarkerFaceColor – specifies the color of the filled markers,
 MarkerSize – specifies the size of the marker in points.
Consider for example
plot(x,y_sin,'-g^',...
'LineWidth',2,...
'MarkerEdgeColor','k',...
'MarkerFaceColor','y',...
'MarkerSize',5)

In this case, the sine plot as illustrated in figure 5.

 Figure 4. Figure 5.

A title can be added to the plot using the title function as follows:
title('Plot Title');

Labeling the plot axes is performed with the xlabel and ylabel functions which take strings as
arguments as follows:
xlabel('x');
ylabel('sin(x)');

Scaling the axes is performed with the axis function which takes as arguments the minimum and
maximum values for the variation ranges along the x and y axes respectively. For further properties
of the axis function consult the Matlab help.
axis([xmin xmax ymin ymax])

Printing a grid o the figure is done with the grid function which must be activated as follows:
grid on;

The grid can later be deactivated by turning it off using

grid off;

Consider for example

title('One Period of a Sine Wave');
xlabel('x');
ylabel('sin(x)');
axis([-5,5,-1.5,1.5]);
grid on;

which changes the sine plot as illustrated in figure 6.

Figure 6

The ezplot function

A direct way to plot the graph of a function over a given variation domain is the ezplot function.
The syntax of the ezplot function is
ezplot(fun,[min,max]);

where fun is the function expression given as a string, and [min, max] is the variation domain of
the function variable. If the variation domain is missing from the function call, Matlab considers
the implicit [-2π, 2π] variation range.
Consider for exemplification plotting a sine wave over a 2π period
ezplot('sin(x)',[-pi,pi]);

which results in the plot from figure 7. To be noticed is that, in contrast to the plot function where
the plot title and the axis labels must be specified explicitly, the ezplot function labels the plot
automatically.
 Figure 7
Additionally, the ezplot function works together with the grid and hold functions to turn the grid
on and to plot multiple graphs in the same window.
3-dimensional plots in Matlab
The plot3 function is the 3-dimensional alternative to the plot function. The syntax of the plot3
function is
plot3(x,y,z);

which interconnects the x(i), y(i) and z(i) coordinate points. Accordingly, the result of the plot3
function is a 3-D curve, as illustrated in the example below
t = 0:pi/50:10*pi;
plot3(sin(t),cos(t),t)
xlabel('sin(t)')
ylabel('cos(t)')
zlabel('t')
grid on

which results in the plot from figure 8.

Editing the 3-dimensional plot is done using a property specifier
plot3(x,y,z,S);

where S defines the specifications regarding line style, color and markers as listed in Tables 1, 2
and 3 respectively.
Additionally, the plot3 function further allows adding plot title, axis labels, turning on the grid and
plotting multiple curves in the same window, as was the case for the plot function.

Figure 8
To be noticed is that, rather than plotting a 2-variable function f(x,y), the plot3 function draws a
curve in the 3-dimensional space which consists in interconnecting successive 3-coordinate points.
In order to plot 2-variable functions, one should use the mesh and surf functions as follows. For
2-variable function plots however, the definition of the variable variation domain must be done
accordingly. The meshgrid function will be used for this purpose.
The meshgrid function
The meshgrid function performs a conversion of the domain specified by two vectors x and y into
matrices X and Y. The lines of the resulting X matrix will be copies of the x vector and the columns
of the resulting Y matrix will be copies of the y vector. Consider for exemplification
[X, Y] = meshgrid(1:3)

which returns
X =

1 2 3
1 2 3
1 2 3

Y =

1 1 1
2 2 2
3 3 3
For different X and Y matrices consider
[X, Y] = meshgrid(1:3,4:6)

which returns
X =

1 2 3
1 2 3
1 2 3

Y =

4 4 4
5 5 5
6 6 6

These matrices are then used to create a 3-D plot of the two-variable function.
The mesh function
The mesh function is used to plot a 2-variable function in the shape of a wireframe surface.
Consider for exemplification the function defined as
𝑓(𝑥, 𝑦) = sin(𝑥) ∙ sin(𝑦) , 𝑥, 𝑦 ∈ (−𝜋, 𝜋]
The Matlab code which creates the mesh of the function is listed as follows.
[x, y] = meshgrid(-pi:pi/10:pi);
z = sin(x) .* sin(y);
mesh(z);

The resulting mesh is illustrated in figure 9.

Figure 9 Figure 10 Figure 11

The mesh can further be edited by adding a contour plot using the meshc function:
meshc(z);

resulting in the mesh illustrated in figure 10, or creating a waterfall plot using the meshz function:
meshz(z);

resulting in the mesh illustrated in figure 11.

Additionally, the mesh function allows adding plot title and axis labels, editing the axes, turning
on the grid and plotting multiple curves in the same window.
The surf function
The surf function is used to plot a 2-variable function in the shape of a rectangular surface. The
surface of the same function as in the previous example is drawn with the Matlab code listed as
follows.
[x, y] = meshgrid(-pi:pi/10:pi);
z = sin(x) .* sin(y);
surf(z);

The resulting surface is illustrated in figure 12.

Figure 12 Figure 13

The surface can further be edited by adding a contour plot using the surfc function:
surfc(z);
resulting in the surface illustrated in figure 13. Additionally, the surf function allows adding plot
title and axis labels, editing the axes, turning on the grid and plotting multiple curves in the same
window.