Question

Is it possible to put some data into gnuplot right on it’s prompt?

Like this:

gnuplot> plot [ 1 2 4 8 ] with lines

Creating a .dat file, saving it, then running gnuplot, plotting, removing file… Sometimes for simple graph that seems too long. Can this be done from gnuplot’s prompt?

Answer 1

I believe this will work for you, it should work from a control script, and may work interactively as well:

set xrange [0:5]
set yrange [0:3]
plot "-" using 1:2:3 w yerrorbars
#  X     Y     Z 
   1.0   1.2   0.2
   2.0   1.8   0.3
   3.0   1.6   0.2
   4.0   1.2   0.2
end
pause -1

This and many other excellent tips I found at this page: http://t16web.lanl.gov/Kawano/gnuplot/datafile2-e.html