plotSeries - Color-code multiple plots

plotSeries allows multiple plots to be easily color-coded

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[ PH CH colorList ] = plotSeries(AH,x,y,s,colormap,OPTIONS)

Plots x and y data with each column of y color-coded according to scalar values defined in s. plotSeries is particularly useful to illustrate how a x-y dataset *changes* in response to some value, s.

Colormap can be defined by a string or a four-column matrix. When a string is used or the argument is left empty, the colormap spans all values of s, linearly. When a four-column matrix is provided, the first column corresponds to potential values of s, the other three define the corresponding RGB values. The RGB values used for each column of y are interpolated from the rows of colormap, so there is no requirement for the number of rows of colormap to match up w/ the length of s.

If length(s) > 1, then a colorbar will be included as a legend for the line coloring.

Optional lineseries specifications (OPTIONS) will be applied to all plots.

plotSeries outputs a list of plotHandles (PH), a colorbar handle, (CH), and the colorList used for the plot. The colorList output can be used directly as the colormap argument for other calls to plotSeries, providing a mechanism to easily produce multiple plots using similar coloring schemes.

Example (cut and paste into the command-line):

% Show how sinc function changes as a function of s
s = 1:10;
x = (-1:1e-3:1).';
y = sinc(x*s);
figure; plotSeries(x,y,s,'jet','LineWidth',2);
xlabel('x-values');ylabel('y-values');

Inputs:
AH - [1x1] [OPTIONAL] Axes handle
x - [NxS / Nx1] X-coordinate data
y - [NxS] Y-coordinate data
s - [1xS] Scalar value associated with each data series (length(s) = size(y,2))
colormap - [Cx4] Colormap to use for dataset coloring. Can be colormap string OR four-column colormap with 1st column corresponding to potential s values and 3 remaining columns corresponding to color. Note that the colormap will be interpolated to find the appropriate color for each dataset. ([] for 'default' colormap)
OPTIONS - Optional arguments for plot command

Outputs:
PH - [Sx1] Plot handle
CH - [1x1] Colorbar handle
colorScale - [Sx4] colormap w/ 1st column corresponding to s values and 3 remaining columns corresponding to color

N - Number of x-y coordinates to plot for each dataset
S - Number of datasets
C - Number of colors provided in colormap

Cite As

James Hall (2026). plotSeries - Color-code multiple plots (https://in.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/33322-plotseries-color-code-multiple-plots), MATLAB Central File Exchange. Retrieved .

General Information

MATLAB Release Compatibility

  • Compatible with any release

Platform Compatibility

  • Windows
  • macOS
  • Linux
Version Published Release Notes Action
1.0.0.0