Question

I have data from simulations in one single .dat file. Depending on certain criteria (‘bu’) that is contained in one column of the file (#13 here), I want to plot the data with different markers, while also defining the markersize and markerface properties.
What I have is a switch environment for the different cases – defining which markers and properties I want, and all this in a for-loop, to go through all simulation data.

I’ve tried the following:

for i=1:s1(1)

bu = data1(i,13);

switch bu

    case 1
        set(h,'kd','MarkerSize',14,'MarkerFaceColor','k');
    case 2
        set(h,'kd','MarkerSize',14);
    case 3
        set(h,'k>','MarkerSize',14,'MarkerFaceColor','k');
    case 4
        set(h,'ks','MarkerSize',14,'MarkerFaceColor','k');
    case 5
        set(h,'ks','MarkerSize',14);
    case 6
        set(h,'ko','markersize',14);
    case 7
        set(findobj(gca,'k^','MarkerSize',14,'MarkerFaceColor','k'));    
end

figure(1);
h=plot(Re1(i),A1(i)); hold on
end

First I tried to use a handle ‘h’, but it said it was undefined, I guess since the h=plot comes later. Then I tried findobj in the last case (which is the case for the first simulation, so this gives the error in the first round), didn’t work either (“Incomplete property-value pair” – not sure what it means here).

I also tried putting all these properties in a string like

str=['kd','MarkerSize',14,'MarkerFaceColor','k']

then plot with

h=plot(Re1(i),A1(i),str); hold on

but it doesn’t work with/without brackets either.

Now I don’t have any further ideas, thankful for any suggestions!

Answer 1

I think the easiest change for you is to put the plot options in a cell array in the switch block. For example:

options = {'kd', 'MarkerSize', 14, 'MarkerFaceColor', 'k'};

Later, when you plot:

plot(x, y, options{:})

Another way I’ve done it is to set variables and use them in the plot command:

style = 'kd';
markerSize = 14;
markerFaceColor = 'k';
plot(x, y, style, 'MarkerSize', markerSize, 'MarkerFaceColor', markerFaceColor);