DoubleEndArrow

Double-ended arrow annotation on figure

• 

Description

Draw a double-ended arrow annotation anywhere on a figure. Set properties of a DoubleEndArrow object to control its appearance.

Creation

Create a double-ended arrow annotation on a figure using the annotation function.

annotation("doublearrow")

Alternatively, create a double-ended arrow annotation by clicking the figure and selecting Double Arrow in the gallery on the Figure tab.

Properties

Color and Styling

Color — Arrow color

RGB triplet | hexadecimal color code | "r" | "g" | "b" | ...

Arrow color, specified as an RGB triplet, hexadecimal color code, a color name, or a short name. The default RGB triplet value of [0 0 0] corresponds to black.

For a custom color, specify an RGB triplet or a hexadecimal color code.

• An RGB triplet is a three-element row vector whose elements specify the intensities of the red, green, and blue components of the color. The intensities must be in the range [0,1], for example, [0.4 0.6 0.7].

• A hexadecimal color code is a string scalar or character vector that starts with a hash symbol (#) followed by three or six hexadecimal digits, which can range from 0 to F. The values are not case sensitive. Therefore, the color codes "#FF8800", "#ff8800", "#F80", and "#f80" are equivalent.

Alternatively, you can specify some common colors by name. This table lists the named color options, the equivalent RGB triplets, and the hexadecimal color codes.

Color Name	Short Name	RGB Triplet	Hexadecimal Color Code	Appearance
"red"	"r"	[1 0 0]	"#FF0000"
"green"	"g"	[0 1 0]	"#00FF00"
"blue"	"b"	[0 0 1]	"#0000FF"
"cyan"	"c"	[0 1 1]	"#00FFFF"
"magenta"	"m"	[1 0 1]	"#FF00FF"
"yellow"	"y"	[1 1 0]	"#FFFF00"
"black"	"k"	[0 0 0]	"#000000"
"white"	"w"	[1 1 1]	"#FFFFFF"
"none"	Not applicable	Not applicable	Not applicable	No color

This table lists the default color palettes for plots in the light and dark themes.

Palette	Palette Colors
"gem" — Light theme default Before R2025a: Most plots use these colors by default.
"glow" — Dark theme default

You can get the RGB triplets and hexadecimal color codes for these palettes using the orderedcolors and rgb2hex functions. For example, get the RGB triplets for the "gem" palette and convert them to hexadecimal color codes.

RGB = orderedcolors("gem");
H = rgb2hex(RGB);

Before R2023b: Get the RGB triplets using RGB = get(groot,"FactoryAxesColorOrder").

Before R2024a: Get the hexadecimal color codes using H = compose("#%02X%02X%02X",round(RGB*255)).

Example: "blue"

Example: [0 0 1]

Example: "#0000FF"

LineStyle — Style of arrow stem

"-" (default) | "--" | ":" | "-." | "none"

Style of arrow stem, specified as one of the line styles listed in this table.

Line Style	Description	Resulting Line
"-"	Solid line
"--"	Dashed line
":"	Dotted line
"-."	Dash-dotted line
"none"	No line	No line

LineWidth — Width of arrow stem

0.5 (default) | positive value

Width of arrow stem, specified as a positive value in point units. One point equals 1/72 inch.

Example: 0.75

Head1Style — Style of first arrowhead

"vback2" (default) | "plain" | "ellipse" | "vback1" | "vback3" | "cback1" | ...

Style of the first arrowhead, specified as one of the head style options in this table. The first arrowhead is located at the point (x_begin,y_begin) determined by the X and Y properties.

Style	Result	Style	Result
"plain"		"fourstar"
"ellipse"		"rectangle"
"vback1"		"diamond"
"vback2" (default)		"rose"
"vback3"		"hypocycloid"
"cback1"		"astroid"
"cback2"		"deltoid"
"cback3"		"none"	No arrowhead

Head2Style — Style of second arrowhead

"vback2" (default) | "plain" | "ellipse" | "vback1" | "vback3" | "cback1" | ...

Style of the second arrowhead, specified as one of the head style options in this table. The second arrowhead is located at the point (x_end,y_end) determined by the X and Y properties.

Style	Result	Style	Result
"plain"		"fourstar"
"ellipse"		"rectangle"
"vback1"		"diamond"
"vback2" (default)		"rose"
"vback3"		"hypocycloid"
"cback1"		"astroid"
"cback2"		"deltoid"
"cback3"		"none"	No arrowhead

Head1Length — Length of first arrowhead

10 (default) | scalar numeric value

Length of the first arrowhead, specified as a scalar numeric value in point units. One point equals 1/72 inch. The first arrowhead extends backward from the point (x_begin,y_begin) determined by the X and Y properties.

Example: 15

Head2Length — Length of second arrowhead

10 (default) | scalar numeric value

Length of the second arrowhead, specified as a scalar numeric value in point units. One point equals 1/72 inch. The second arrowhead extends backward from the point (x_end,y_end) determined by the X and Y properties.

Example: 15

Head1Width — Width of first arrowhead

10 (default) | scalar numeric value

Width of the first arrowhead, specified as a scalar numeric value in point units. One point equals 1/72 inch. The first arrowhead is located at the point (x_begin,y_begin) determined by the X and Y properties.

Example: 15

Head2Width — Width of second arrowhead

10 (default) | scalar numeric value

Width of the second arrowhead, specified as a scalar numeric value in point units. One point equals 1/72 inch. The second arrowhead is located at the point (x_end,y_end) determined by the X and Y properties.

Example: 15

Position

X — Beginning and ending x-coordinates

[0.3 0.4] (default) | two-element vector

Beginning and ending x-coordinates, specified as a two-element vector of the form [x_begin x_end].

By default, the units are normalized to the figure. The lower-left corner of the figure maps to (0,0) and the upper-right corner maps to (1,1). To change the units, use the Units property.

Example: [0.2 0.3]

Y — Beginning and ending y-coordinates

[0.3 0.4] (default) | two-element vector

Beginning and ending y-coordinates, specified as a two-element vector of the form [y_begin y_end].

By default, the units are normalized to the figure. The lower-left corner of the figure maps to (0,0) and the upper-right corner maps to (1,1). To change the units, use the Units property.

Example: [0.2 0.3]

Position — Size and location

[0.3 0.3 0.1 0.1] (default) | four-element vector

Size and location, specified as a four-element vector of the form [x_begin y_begin dx dy]. The first two elements specify the coordinates for the beginning of the arrow. The second two elements specify the slope of the arrow.

By default, the units are normalized to the figure. The lower-left corner of the figure maps to (0,0) and the upper-right corner maps to (1,1). To change the units, use the Units property.

Example: [0.5 0.5 0.2 0.3]

Units — Position units

"normalized" (default) | "inches" | "centimeters" | "characters" | "points" | "pixels"

Position units, specified as one of the values in this table.

Units	Description
"normalized" (default)	Normalized with respect to the figure, uipanel, or uitab that contains the annotation. The lower-left corner of the container maps to (0,0) and the upper-right corner maps to (1,1).
"inches"	Inches.
"centimeters"	Centimeters.
"characters"	Based on the default system font character size. Character width = width of letter x. Character height = distance between the baselines of two lines of text.
"points"	Points. One point equals 1/72 inch.
"pixels"	Pixels. On Windows® and Macintosh systems, the size of a pixel is 1/96th of an inch. This size is independent of your system resolution. On Linux® systems, the size of a pixel is determined by your system resolution.

All units are measured from the lower-left corner of the figure window.

This property affects the Position property. If you change the units, then it is good practice to return it to the default value after completing your computation to prevent affecting other functions that assume Units is set to the default value.

If you specify the Position and Units properties using name-value arguments when creating the object, then the order of specification matters. If you want to define the position with particular units, then you must set the Units property before the Position property.

Examples

Create Double-Ended Arrow Annotation

Create a double-ended arrow annotation on a figure. Specify the horizontal range of the arrow stem using the form [x_begin x_end] and vertical range of the arrow stem using the form [y_begin y_end]. By default, the units are normalized to the figure. So, the lower-left corner of the figure maps to (0,0) and the upper-right corner maps to (1,1).

x = linspace(0,4*pi);
y = sin(x);
plot(x,y)
axis padded

xint = [0.26 0.61];
yint = [0.88 0.88];
annotation("doublearrow",xint,yint);

Customize Double-Ended Arrow Annotation

Create a double-ended arrow annotation on a figure. Customize the double-ended arrow annotation by setting the line style and line width.

x = linspace(0,4*pi);
y = sin(x);
plot(x,y)
axis padded

xint = [0.26 0.61];
yint = [0.88 0.88];
an = annotation("doublearrow",xint,yint);

an.LineStyle = "--";
an.LineWidth = 2;

Create Multiple Double-Ended Arrows

Create a double-ended arrow annotation on a figure. Change the head styles to be rectangles and make the rectangle arrowheads thin.

x = linspace(-pi/2,pi/2);
y1 = sin(x);
plot(x,y1)
hold on
y2 = cos(x);
plot(x,y2)
hold off

xint1 = [0.21 0.21];
yint1 = [0.52 0.11];
an1 = annotation("doublearrow",xint1,yint1);
an1.Head1Style = "rectangle";
an1.Head2Style = "rectangle";
an1.Head1Length = 2;
an1.Head2Length = 2;

Create a second double-ended arrow annotation on the same figure. Use the same arrowhead style and length as in the first annotation.

xint2 = [0.82 0.82];
yint2 = [0.52 0.92];
an2 = annotation("doublearrow",xint2,yint2);

an2.Head1Style = "rectangle";
an2.Head2Style = "rectangle";
an2.Head1Length = 2;
an2.Head2Length = 2;

Version History

Introduced before R2006a