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fsurf

Plot 3-D surface

Description

example

fsurf(f) creates a surface plot of the symbolic expression f(x,y) over the default interval [-5 5] for x and y.

example

fsurf(f,[min max]) plots f(x,y) over the interval [min max] for x and y.

example

fsurf(f,[xmin xmax ymin ymax]) plots f(x,y) over the interval [xmin xmax] for x and [ymin ymax] for y. The fsurf function uses symvar to order the variables and assign intervals.

example

fsurf(funx,funy,funz) plots the parametric surface x = x(u,v), y = y(u,v), z = z(u,v) over the interval [-5 5] for u and v.

fsurf(funx,funy,funz,[uvmin uvmax]) plots the parametric surface x = x(u,v), y = y(u,v), z = z(u,v) over the interval [uvmin uvmax] for u and v.

example

fsurf(funx,funy,funz,[umin umax vmin vmax]) plots the parametric surface x = x(u,v), y = y(u,v), z = z(u,v) over the interval [umin umax] for u and [vmin vmax] for v. The fsurf function uses symvar to order the parametric variables and assign intervals.

example

fsurf(___,LineSpec) uses LineSpec to set the line style, marker symbol, and face color. Use this option after any of the previous input argument combinations.

example

fsurf(___,Name,Value) specifies line properties using one or more Name,Value pair arguments. Use this option after any of the input argument combinations in the previous syntaxes.

fsurf(ax,___) plots into the axes with the object ax instead of the current axes object gca.

example

fs = fsurf(___) returns a function surface object or parameterized function surface object, depending on the type of surface. Use the object to query and modify properties of a specific surface. For details, see FunctionSurface Properties and ParameterizedFunctionSurface Properties.

Examples

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Plot the input sin(x)+cos(y) over the default range -5<x<5 and -5<y<5.

syms x y
fsurf(sin(x)+cos(y))

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains an object of type functionsurface.

Plot the real part of tan-1(x+iy) over the default range -5<x<5 and -5<y<5.

syms f(x,y)
f(x,y) = real(atan(x + i*y));
fsurf(f)

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains an object of type functionsurface.

Plot sin(x)+cos(y) over -π<x<π and -5<y<5 by specifying the plotting interval as the second argument of fsurf.

syms x y
f = sin(x) + cos(y);
fsurf(f, [-pi pi -5 5])

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains an object of type functionsurface.

Plot the parameterized surface

x=rcos(s)sin(t)y=rsin(s)sin(t)z=rcos(t)wherer=2+sin(7s+5t)

for 0<s<2π and 0<t<π.

Improve the plot's appearance by using camlight.

syms s t
r = 2 + sin(7*s + 5*t);
x = r*cos(s)*sin(t);
y = r*sin(s)*sin(t);
z = r*cos(t);
fsurf(x, y, z, [0 2*pi 0 pi])
camlight
view(46,52)

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains an object of type parameterizedfunctionsurface.

Plot the piecewise expression of the Klein bottle

x(u,v)={-4cos(u)[1+sin(u)]-r(u)cos(u)cos(v)0<uπ-4cos(u)[1+sin(u)]+r(u)cos(v)π<u<2πy(u,v)=r(u)sin(v)z(u,v)={-14sin(u)-r(u)sin(u)cos(v)0<uπ-14sin(u)π<u<2πwherer(u)=4-2cos(u)

for 0<u<2π and 0<v<2π.

Show that the Klein bottle has only a one-sided surface.

syms u v;
r = @(u) 4 - 2*cos(u);
x = piecewise(u <= pi, -4*cos(u)*(1+sin(u)) - r(u)*cos(u)*cos(v),...
    u > pi, -4*cos(u)*(1+sin(u)) + r(u)*cos(v));
y = r(u)*sin(v);
z = piecewise(u <= pi, -14*sin(u) - r(u)*sin(u)*cos(v),...
    u > pi, -14*sin(u));
h = fsurf(x,y,z, [0 2*pi 0 2*pi]);

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains an object of type parameterizedfunctionsurface.

For x and y from -2π to 2π, plot the 3-D surface ysin(x)-xcos(y). Add a title and axis labels.

Create the x-axis ticks by spanning the x-axis limits at intervals of pi/2. Convert the axis limits to precise multiples of pi/2 by using round and get the symbolic tick values in S. Display these ticks by using the XTick property. Create x-axis labels by using arrayfun to apply texlabel to S. Display these labels by using the XTickLabel property. Repeat these steps for the y-axis.

To use LaTeX in plots, see latex.

syms x y
fsurf(y.*sin(x)-x.*cos(y), [-2*pi 2*pi])
title('ysin(x) - xcos(y) for x and y in [-2\pi,2\pi]')
xlabel('x')
ylabel('y')
zlabel('z')

ax = gca;
S = sym(ax.XLim(1):pi/2:ax.XLim(2));
S = sym(round(vpa(S/pi*2))*pi/2);
ax.XTick = double(S);
ax.XTickLabel = arrayfun(@texlabel,S,'UniformOutput',false);

S = sym(ax.YLim(1):pi/2:ax.YLim(2));
S = sym(round(vpa(S/pi*2))*pi/2);
ax.YTick = double(S);
ax.YTickLabel = arrayfun(@texlabel,S,'UniformOutput',false);

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object with title ysin(x) blank - blank xcos(y) blank for blank x blank and blank y blank in blank [-2 pi ,2 pi ], xlabel x, ylabel y contains an object of type functionsurface.

Plot the parametric surface x=ssin(t), y=-scos(t), z=t with different line styles for different values of t. For -5<t<-2, use a dashed line with green dot markers. For -2<t<2, use a LineWidth of 1 and a green face color. For 2<t<5, turn off the lines by setting EdgeColor to none.

syms s t
fsurf(s*sin(t),-s*cos(t),t,[-5 5 -5 -2],'--.','MarkerEdgeColor','g')
hold on
fsurf(s*sin(t),-s*cos(t),t,[-5 5 -2 2],'LineWidth',1,'FaceColor','g')
fsurf(s*sin(t),-s*cos(t),t,[-5 5 2 5],'EdgeColor','none')

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains 3 objects of type parameterizedfunctionsurface.

Plot the parametric surface

x=e-|u|/10sin(5|v|)y=e-|u|/10cos(5|v|)z=u.

Specify an output to make fcontour return the plot object.

syms u v
x = exp(-abs(u)/10).*sin(5*abs(v));
y = exp(-abs(u)/10).*cos(5*abs(v));
z = u;
fs = fsurf(x,y,z)

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains an object of type parameterizedfunctionsurface.

fs = 
  ParameterizedFunctionSurface with properties:

    XFunction: exp(-abs(u)/10)*sin(5*abs(v))
    YFunction: exp(-abs(u)/10)*cos(5*abs(v))
    ZFunction: u
    EdgeColor: [0 0 0]
    LineStyle: '-'
    FaceColor: 'interp'

  Use GET to show all properties

Change the range of u to [-30 30] by using the URange property of fs. Set the line color to blue by using the EdgeColor property and specify white, dot markers by using the Marker and MarkerEdgeColor properties.

fs.URange = [-30 30];
fs.EdgeColor = 'b';
fs.Marker = '.';
fs.MarkerEdgeColor = 'w';

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains an object of type parameterizedfunctionsurface.

Plot multiple surfaces using vector input to fsurf. Alternatively, use hold on to plot successively on the same figure. When displaying multiple surfaces on the same figure, transparency is useful. Adjust the transparency of surface plots by using the FaceAlpha property. FaceAlpha varies from 0 to 1, where 0 is full transparency and 1 is no transparency.

Plot the planes x+y and x-y using vector input to fsurf. Show both planes by making them half transparent using FaceAlpha.

syms x y
h = fsurf([x+y x-y]);
h(1).FaceAlpha = 0.5;
h(2).FaceAlpha = 0.5;
title('Planes (x+y) and (x-y) at half transparency')

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object with title Planes (x+y) and (x-y) at half transparency contains 2 objects of type functionsurface.

Control the resolution of a surface plot using the 'MeshDensity' option. Increasing 'MeshDensity' can make smoother, more accurate plots while decreasing it can increase plotting speed.

Divide a figure into two using subplot. In the first subplot, plot the parametric surface x=sin(s), y=cos(s), and z=(t/10)sin(1/s). The surface has a large gap. Fix this issue by increasing the 'MeshDensity' to 40 in the second subplot. fsurf fills the gap showing that by increasing 'MeshDensity' you increased the plot's resolution.

syms s t

subplot(2,1,1)
fsurf(sin(s), cos(s), t/10.*sin(1./s))
view(-172,25)
title('Default MeshDensity = 35')

subplot(2,1,2)
fsurf(sin(s), cos(s), t/10.*sin(1./s),'MeshDensity',40)
view(-172,25)
title('Increased MeshDensity = 40')

Figure contains 2 axes objects. Axes object 1 with title Default MeshDensity = 35 contains an object of type parameterizedfunctionsurface. Axes object 2 with title Increased MeshDensity = 40 contains an object of type parameterizedfunctionsurface.

Show contours for the surface plot of the expression f by setting the 'ShowContours' option to 'on'.

syms x y
f = 3*(1-x)^2*exp(-(x^2)-(y+1)^2)...
- 10*(x/5 - x^3 - y^5)*exp(-x^2-y^2)...
- 1/3*exp(-(x+1)^2 - y^2);
fsurf(f,[-3 3],'ShowContours','on')

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains an object of type functionsurface.

Create an animation of surface plots by changing the displayed expression using the Function, XFunction, YFunction, and ZFunction properties, and then use drawnow to update the plot. To export to GIF, see imwrite.

By varying the variable $k$ from 1 to 3, animate the parametric surface

$$x = t \sin(s)$$

$$y = t \cos(s)$$

$$z = \sin(k/s)$$

for $-0.1 < s < 0.1$ and $0 < t < 1$. Increase plotting speed by reducing MeshDensity to 9.

syms s t
h = fsurf(t.*sin(s), cos(s), sin(1./s), [-0.1 0.1 0 1]);
h.MeshDensity = 9;
for i=1:0.1:3
    h.ZFunction = sin(i./s);
    drawnow
end

Create a symbolic expression f for the function

f=3(1-x)2exp(-(x2)-(y+1)2)-10(x/5-x3-y5)exp(-x2-y2)-1/3exp(-(x+1)2-y2).

Plot the expression f as a surface. Improve the appearance of the surface plot by using the properties of the handle returned by fsurf, the lighting properties, and the colormap.

Create a light by using camlight. Increase brightness by using brighten. Remove the lines by setting EdgeColor to 'none'. Increase the ambient light using AmbientStrength. For details, see Lighting, Transparency, and Shading. Turn the axes box on. For the title, convert f to LaTeX using latex. Finally, to improve the appearance of the axes ticks, axes labels, and title, set 'Interpreter' to 'latex'.

syms x y
f = 3*(1-x)^2*exp(-(x^2)-(y+1)^2)... 
   - 10*(x/5 - x^3 - y^5)*exp(-x^2-y^2)... 
   - 1/3*exp(-(x+1)^2 - y^2);
h = fsurf(f,[-3 3]);

camlight(110,70)
brighten(0.6)
h.EdgeColor = 'none';
h.AmbientStrength = 0.4;

a = gca;
a.TickLabelInterpreter = 'latex';
a.Box = 'on';
a.BoxStyle = 'full';

xlabel('$x$','Interpreter','latex')
ylabel('$y$','Interpreter','latex')
zlabel('$z$','Interpreter','latex')
title_latex = ['$' latex(f) '$'];
title(title_latex,'Interpreter','latex')

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object with title 3 blank e toThePowerOf minus leftParenthesis y plus 1 rightParenthesis Squared baseline minus x Squared baseline baseline blank leftParenthesis x minus 1 rightParenthesis Squared baseline minus StartFraction e toThePowerOf minus leftParenthesis x plus 1 rightParenthesis Squared baseline minus y Squared baseline baseline over 3 EndFraction plus e toThePowerOf minus x Squared baseline minus y Squared baseline baseline blank leftParenthesis 1 0 blank x Cubed baseline minus 2 blank x plus 1 0 blank y toThePowerOf 5 baseline rightParenthesis, xlabel $x$, ylabel $y$ contains an object of type functionsurface.

Plot a cylindrical shell bounded below by the x-y plane and above by the plane z=x+2.

syms r t u
fsurf(cos(t),sin(t),u*(cos(t)+2),[0 2*pi 0 1])
hold on;

Add a surface plot of the plane z=x+2.

fsurf(r*cos(t),r*sin(t),r*cos(t)+2,[0 1 0 2*pi])

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains 2 objects of type parameterizedfunctionsurface.

Apply rotation and translation to the surface plot of a torus.

A torus can be defined parametrically by

x(θ,φ)=(R+acosθ)cosφy(θ,φ)=(R+acosθ)sinφz(θ,φ)=asinφ

where

  • θ is the polar angle and φ is the azimuthal angle

  • a is the radius of the tube

  • R is the distance from the center of the tube to the center of the torus

Define the values for a and R as 1 and 5, respectively. Plot the torus using fsurf.

syms theta phi
a = 1;
R = 4;
x = (R + a*cos(theta))*cos(phi);
y = (R + a*cos(theta))*sin(phi);
z = a*sin(theta);
fsurf(x,y,z,[0 2*pi 0 2*pi])
hold on

Apply rotation to the torus around the x-axis. Define the rotation matrix. Rotate the torus by 90 degrees or π/2 radians.

alpha = pi/2;
Rx = [1 0 0;
      0 cos(alpha) -sin(alpha);
      0 sin(alpha) cos(alpha)];
r = [x; y; z];
r_90 = Rx*r;

Shift the center of the torus by 5 along the x-axis. Add a second plot of the rotated and translated torus to the existing graph.

fsurf(r_90(1)+5,r_90(2),r_90(3))
axis([-5 10 -5 10 -5 5])
hold off

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains 2 objects of type parameterizedfunctionsurface.

Input Arguments

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Expression or function to be plotted, specified as a symbolic expression or function.

Plotting interval for x- and y-axes, specified as a vector of two numbers. The default is [-5 5].

Plotting interval for x- and y-axes, specified as a vector of four numbers. The default is [-5 5 -5 5].

Parametric functions of u and v, specified as a symbolic expression or function.

Plotting interval for u and v axes, specified as a vector of two numbers. The default is [-5 5].

Plotting interval for u and v, specified as a vector of four numbers. The default is [-5 5 -5 5].

Axes object. If you do not specify an axes object, then fsurf uses the current axes.

Line style, marker, and color, specified as a string scalar or character vector containing symbols. The symbols can appear in any order. You do not need to specify all three characteristics (line style, marker, and color). For example, if you omit the line style and specify the marker, then the plot shows only the marker and no line.

Example: "--or" is a red dashed line with circle markers.

Line StyleDescriptionResulting Line
"-"Solid line

Sample of solid line

"--"Dashed line

Sample of dashed line

":"Dotted line

Sample of dotted line

"-."Dash-dotted line

Sample of dash-dotted line, with alternating dashes and dots

MarkerDescriptionResulting Marker
"o"Circle

Sample of circle marker

"+"Plus sign

Sample of plus sign marker

"*"Asterisk

Sample of asterisk marker

"."Point

Sample of point marker

"x"Cross

Sample of cross marker

"_"Horizontal line

Sample of horizontal line marker

"|"Vertical line

Sample of vertical line marker

"square"Square

Sample of square marker

"diamond"Diamond

Sample of diamond marker

"^"Upward-pointing triangle

Sample of upward-pointing triangle marker

"v"Downward-pointing triangle

Sample of downward-pointing triangle marker

">"Right-pointing triangle

Sample of right-pointing triangle marker

"<"Left-pointing triangle

Sample of left-pointing triangle marker

"pentagram"Pentagram

Sample of pentagram marker

"hexagram"Hexagram

Sample of hexagram marker

Color NameShort NameRGB TripletAppearance
"red""r"[1 0 0]

Sample of the color red

"green""g"[0 1 0]

Sample of the color green

"blue""b"[0 0 1]

Sample of the color blue

"cyan" "c"[0 1 1]

Sample of the color cyan

"magenta""m"[1 0 1]

Sample of the color magenta

"yellow""y"[1 1 0]

Sample of the color yellow

"black""k"[0 0 0]

Sample of the color black

"white""w"[1 1 1]

Sample of the color white

Name-Value Arguments

Specify optional pairs of arguments as Name1=Value1,...,NameN=ValueN, where Name is the argument name and Value is the corresponding value. Name-value arguments must appear after other arguments, but the order of the pairs does not matter.

Before R2021a, use commas to separate each name and value, and enclose Name in quotes.

Example: 'Marker','o','MarkerFaceColor','red'

The properties listed here are only a subset. For a complete list, see FunctionSurface Properties.

Number of evaluation points per direction, specified as a number. The default is 35. Because fsurf objects use adaptive evaluation, the actual number of evaluation points is greater.

Example: 100

Display contour plot under plot, specified as 'on' or 'off', or as numeric or logical 1 (true) or 0 (false). A value of 'on' is equivalent to true, and 'off' is equivalent to false. Thus, you can use the value of this property as a logical value. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.

Line color, specified as 'interp', an RGB triplet, a hexadecimal color code, a color name, or a short name. The default RGB triplet value of [0 0 0] corresponds to black. The 'interp' value colors the edges based on the ZData values.

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 hexadecimal color codes.

Color NameShort NameRGB TripletHexadecimal Color CodeAppearance
"red""r"[1 0 0]"#FF0000"

Sample of the color red

"green""g"[0 1 0]"#00FF00"

Sample of the color green

"blue""b"[0 0 1]"#0000FF"

Sample of the color blue

"cyan" "c"[0 1 1]"#00FFFF"

Sample of the color cyan

"magenta""m"[1 0 1]"#FF00FF"

Sample of the color magenta

"yellow""y"[1 1 0]"#FFFF00"

Sample of the color yellow

"black""k"[0 0 0]"#000000"

Sample of the color black

"white""w"[1 1 1]"#FFFFFF"

Sample of the color white

"none"Not applicableNot applicableNot applicableNo color

Here are the RGB triplets and hexadecimal color codes for the default colors MATLAB® uses in many types of plots.

RGB TripletHexadecimal Color CodeAppearance
[0 0.4470 0.7410]"#0072BD"

Sample of RGB triplet [0 0.4470 0.7410], which appears as dark blue

[0.8500 0.3250 0.0980]"#D95319"

Sample of RGB triplet [0.8500 0.3250 0.0980], which appears as dark orange

[0.9290 0.6940 0.1250]"#EDB120"

Sample of RGB triplet [0.9290 0.6940 0.1250], which appears as dark yellow

[0.4940 0.1840 0.5560]"#7E2F8E"

Sample of RGB triplet [0.4940 0.1840 0.5560], which appears as dark purple

[0.4660 0.6740 0.1880]"#77AC30"

Sample of RGB triplet [0.4660 0.6740 0.1880], which appears as medium green

[0.3010 0.7450 0.9330]"#4DBEEE"

Sample of RGB triplet [0.3010 0.7450 0.9330], which appears as light blue

[0.6350 0.0780 0.1840]"#A2142F"

Sample of RGB triplet [0.6350 0.0780 0.1840], which appears as dark red

Line style, specified as one of the options listed in this table.

Line StyleDescriptionResulting Line
"-"Solid line

Sample of solid line

"--"Dashed line

Sample of dashed line

":"Dotted line

Sample of dotted line

"-."Dash-dotted line

Sample of dash-dotted line, with alternating dashes and dots

"none"No lineNo line

Line width, specified as a positive value in points, where 1 point = 1/72 of an inch. If the line has markers, then the line width also affects the marker edges.

The line width cannot be thinner than the width of a pixel. If you set the line width to a value that is less than the width of a pixel on your system, the line displays as one pixel wide.

Marker symbol, specified as one of the values listed in this table. By default, the object does not display markers. Specifying a marker symbol adds markers at each data point or vertex.

MarkerDescriptionResulting Marker
"o"Circle

Sample of circle marker

"+"Plus sign

Sample of plus sign marker

"*"Asterisk

Sample of asterisk marker

"."Point

Sample of point marker

"x"Cross

Sample of cross marker

"_"Horizontal line

Sample of horizontal line marker

"|"Vertical line

Sample of vertical line marker

"square"Square

Sample of square marker

"diamond"Diamond

Sample of diamond marker

"^"Upward-pointing triangle

Sample of upward-pointing triangle marker

"v"Downward-pointing triangle

Sample of downward-pointing triangle marker

">"Right-pointing triangle

Sample of right-pointing triangle marker

"<"Left-pointing triangle

Sample of left-pointing triangle marker

"pentagram"Pentagram

Sample of pentagram marker

"hexagram"Hexagram

Sample of hexagram marker

"none"No markersNot applicable

Marker outline color, specified as 'auto', an RGB triplet, a hexadecimal color code, a color name, or a short name. The default value of 'auto' uses the same color as the EdgeColor property.

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 hexadecimal color codes.

Color NameShort NameRGB TripletHexadecimal Color CodeAppearance
"red""r"[1 0 0]"#FF0000"

Sample of the color red

"green""g"[0 1 0]"#00FF00"

Sample of the color green

"blue""b"[0 0 1]"#0000FF"

Sample of the color blue

"cyan" "c"[0 1 1]"#00FFFF"

Sample of the color cyan

"magenta""m"[1 0 1]"#FF00FF"

Sample of the color magenta

"yellow""y"[1 1 0]"#FFFF00"

Sample of the color yellow

"black""k"[0 0 0]"#000000"

Sample of the color black

"white""w"[1 1 1]"#FFFFFF"

Sample of the color white

"none"Not applicableNot applicableNot applicableNo color

Here are the RGB triplets and hexadecimal color codes for the default colors MATLAB uses in many types of plots.

RGB TripletHexadecimal Color CodeAppearance
[0 0.4470 0.7410]"#0072BD"

Sample of RGB triplet [0 0.4470 0.7410], which appears as dark blue

[0.8500 0.3250 0.0980]"#D95319"

Sample of RGB triplet [0.8500 0.3250 0.0980], which appears as dark orange

[0.9290 0.6940 0.1250]"#EDB120"

Sample of RGB triplet [0.9290 0.6940 0.1250], which appears as dark yellow

[0.4940 0.1840 0.5560]"#7E2F8E"

Sample of RGB triplet [0.4940 0.1840 0.5560], which appears as dark purple

[0.4660 0.6740 0.1880]"#77AC30"

Sample of RGB triplet [0.4660 0.6740 0.1880], which appears as medium green

[0.3010 0.7450 0.9330]"#4DBEEE"

Sample of RGB triplet [0.3010 0.7450 0.9330], which appears as light blue

[0.6350 0.0780 0.1840]"#A2142F"

Sample of RGB triplet [0.6350 0.0780 0.1840], which appears as dark red

Example: [0.5 0.5 0.5]

Example: 'blue'

Example: '#D2F9A7'

Marker fill color, specified as 'auto', an RGB triplet, a hexadecimal color code, a color name, or a short name. The 'auto' value uses the same color as the MarkerEdgeColor property.

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 hexadecimal color codes.

Color NameShort NameRGB TripletHexadecimal Color CodeAppearance
"red""r"[1 0 0]"#FF0000"

Sample of the color red

"green""g"[0 1 0]"#00FF00"

Sample of the color green

"blue""b"[0 0 1]"#0000FF"

Sample of the color blue

"cyan" "c"[0 1 1]"#00FFFF"

Sample of the color cyan

"magenta""m"[1 0 1]"#FF00FF"

Sample of the color magenta

"yellow""y"[1 1 0]"#FFFF00"

Sample of the color yellow

"black""k"[0 0 0]"#000000"

Sample of the color black

"white""w"[1 1 1]"#FFFFFF"

Sample of the color white

"none"Not applicableNot applicableNot applicableNo color

Here are the RGB triplets and hexadecimal color codes for the default colors MATLAB uses in many types of plots.

RGB TripletHexadecimal Color CodeAppearance
[0 0.4470 0.7410]"#0072BD"

Sample of RGB triplet [0 0.4470 0.7410], which appears as dark blue

[0.8500 0.3250 0.0980]"#D95319"

Sample of RGB triplet [0.8500 0.3250 0.0980], which appears as dark orange

[0.9290 0.6940 0.1250]"#EDB120"

Sample of RGB triplet [0.9290 0.6940 0.1250], which appears as dark yellow

[0.4940 0.1840 0.5560]"#7E2F8E"

Sample of RGB triplet [0.4940 0.1840 0.5560], which appears as dark purple

[0.4660 0.6740 0.1880]"#77AC30"

Sample of RGB triplet [0.4660 0.6740 0.1880], which appears as medium green

[0.3010 0.7450 0.9330]"#4DBEEE"

Sample of RGB triplet [0.3010 0.7450 0.9330], which appears as light blue

[0.6350 0.0780 0.1840]"#A2142F"

Sample of RGB triplet [0.6350 0.0780 0.1840], which appears as dark red

Example: [0.3 0.2 0.1]

Example: 'green'

Example: '#D2F9A7'

Marker size, specified as a positive value in points, where 1 point = 1/72 of an inch.

Output Arguments

collapse all

One or more objects, returned as a scalar or a vector. The object is either a function surface object or parameterized surface object, depending on the type of plot. You can use these objects to query and modify properties of a specific line. For details, see FunctionSurface Properties and ParameterizedFunctionSurface Properties.

Algorithms

fsurf assigns the symbolic variables in f to the x-axis, then the y-axis, and symvar determines the order of the variables to be assigned. Therefore, variable and axis names might not correspond. To force fsurf to assign x or y to its corresponding axis, create the symbolic function to plot, then pass the symbolic function to fsurf.

For example, the following code plots f(x,y) = sin(y) in two ways. The first way forces the waves to oscillate with respect to the y-axis. In other words, the first plot assigns the y variable to the corresponding y-axis. The second plot assigns y to the x-axis because it is the first (and only) variable in the symbolic function.

syms x y;
f(x,y) = sin(y);

figure;
subplot(2,1,1)
fsurf(f);
subplot(2,1,2)
fsurf(f(x,y)); % Or fsurf(sin(y));
Two surface plots showing f(x,y) = sin(y), one plot with respect to the y-axis and the other plot with respect to the x-axis

Version History

Introduced in R2016a