Bar and Area Graphs - MATLAB & Simulink

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Bar and Area Graphs

On this page Types of Bar Graphs Coloring 2-D Bars According to Height Coloring 3-D Bars According to Height Stacked Bar Graphs to Show Contributing Amounts Specifying X-Axis Data Overlaying Bar Graphs Overlaying Other Plots on Bar Graphs Area Graphs Comparing Data Sets with Area Graphs

Types of Bar Graphs

Bar and area graphs display vector or matrix data. These types of graphs are useful for viewing results over a period of time, comparing results from different data sets, and showing how individual elements contribute to an aggregate amount. Bar graphs are suitable for displaying discrete data, whereas area graphslike line graphs are more suitable for displaying continuous data. This table lists the functions that plot bar and area graphs.

Function bar barh bar3 bar3h area

Description Displays columns of m-by-n matrix as m groups of n vertical bars. Displays columns of m-by-n matrix as m groups of n horizontal bars. Displays columns of m-by-n matrix as m groups of n vertical 3-D bars. Displays columns of m-by-n matrix as m groups of n horizontal 3-D bars. Displays vector data as stacked area plots.

Four of these five functions display bar graphs (there is only one type of area graph; see Area Graphs). Bar graphs differ according to whether they plot in 2-D or 3-D and create vertical or horizontal bars, as this table describes.

Orientation Vertical Horizontal

Two-Dimensional bar barh

Three-Dimensional bar3 bar3h

Grouped Bar Graph By default, a bar graph represents each element in a matrix as one bar. Bars in a 2-D bar graph, created by the
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bar function, are distributed along the x-axis, with each element in a column drawn at a different location. All elements in a row are clustered around the same location on the x-axis. For example, define Y as a simple matrix and issue the bar function in its simplest form: Y = [5 2 1 8 7 3 9 8 6 5 5 5 4 3 2]; bar(Y) colormap summer grid on The bars are clustered together by rows and evenly distributed along the x-axis.

Detached 3-D Bars The bar3 function, in its simplest form, draws each element as a separate 3-D block, with the elements of each column distributed along the y-axis. Bars that represent elements in the first column of the matrix are centered at 1 along the x-axis. Bars that represent elements in the last column of the matrix are centered at size(Y,2) along the x-axis. For example, bar3(Y) displays five groups of three bars along the y-axis. Notice that larger bars obscure Y(1,2) and Y(1,3).

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By default, bar3 draws detached bars. The statement bar3(Y,'detach') has the same effect. Labeling the Graph. To add axes labels and x tick marks to this bar graph, use these statements: xlabel('X Axis') ylabel('Y Axis') zlabel('Z Axis') set(gca,'XTick',[1 2 3]) Grouped 3-D Bars Cluster the bars from each row beside each other by specifying the argument 'group'. For example: bar3(Y,'group') groups the bars according to row and distributes the clusters evenly along the y-axis.

Coloring 2-D Bars According to Height

The bar and barh functions make all bars in a series the same color. With a little effort, however, you can assign

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a desired color to each bar. The typical approach is to associate bar colors with bar heights (y values). The following steps describe one way to do this, first using faceted shading and then using smooth (interpolated) shading: 1. Make up some numbers, plot a default bar plot, and assign a bichromatic colormap: n = 13; Z = rand(n,1); h = bar(Z); colormap(summer(n));

Only the first color is used to color the faces. 2. Assign a new color to each bar. bar (and barh) creates a barseries object, which encapsulates a set of patch objects for the bars. The patches have face-vertex syntax. First get a handle for the children, and then obtain the vertices for the bars and the vertex color data: ch = get(h,'Children'); fvd = get(ch,'Faces'); fvcd = get(ch,'FaceVertexCData'); 3. Sort the data to obtain an index for traversing the Faces array from the lowest to highest bar: [zs, izs] = sortrows(Z,1); 4. Traverse the Faces array and assign colors to the face-vertex color data as you go: for i = 1:n row = izs(i); fvcd(fvd(row,:)) = i; end set(ch,'FaceVertexCData',fvcd)

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The code assigns colors to bars based on their YData ranks, rather than on their YData values. This helps to distinguish bars by color, but also the code can assign to bars that are nearly the same height a wider range of colors than if the colors were directly mapped to YData values. 5. To make the graph more readable, you can set different colors for vertices on the baseline and on the top, and then apply interpolated shading to change hue going up the bars. The following code colors the two vertices at the base of each bar using the first color in the colormap, and assigns a color to the two vertices at the top proportionally to bar height. A longer color ramp than was used previously is needed to obtain smooth gradations of shading: k = 128; colormap(summer(k)); shading interp for i = 1:n color = floor(k*i/n); row = izs(i); fvcd(fvd(row,1)) = 1; fvcd(fvd(row,4)) = 1; fvcd(fvd(row,2)) = color; fvcd(fvd(row,3)) = color; end set(ch,'FaceVertexCData', fvcd); set(ch,'EdgeColor','k') % Apply the vertex coloring % Give bars black borders % Assign top vertices color % Interpolate a color index % Look up actual row # in data % Color base vertices 1st index % Number of colors in color table % Expand the previous colormap % Needed to graduate colors

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Coloring 3-D Bars According to Height

By default, all bars in a series (column) have the same color. You can modify a 3-D bar plot to color each bar according to how tall it is, but the technique is slightly different than the one used for coloring 2-D bars. Applying a monochromatic or bichromatic colormap to such plots helps viewers see height distinctions more readily. Adding a colorbar can also help. The graph reads better if you override the default behavior of bar3 to shade the sides of the bars with contrasting hues. You can color bars by height and make the sides match the color of the top of each bar by executing the following code: Z = magic(5); h = bar3(Z); colormap cool colorbar

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You can then make the plot even more readable by interpolating colors along the bars and giving their EdgeColor a contrasting color. The following code accomplishes this: % Tell handle graphics to use interpolated rather than flat shading shading interp % For each barseries, map its CData to its ZData for i = 1:length(h) zdata = get(h(i),'ZData'); set(h(i),'CData',zdata) % Add back edge color removed by interpolating shading set(h,'EdgeColor','k') end

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Stacked Bar Graphs to Show Contributing Amounts

Bar graphs can show how elements in the same row of a matrix contribute to the sum of all elements in the row. These types of bar graphs are referred to as stacked bar graphs. Stacked bar graphs display one bar per row of a matrix. The bars are divided into n segments, where n is the number of columns in the matrix. For vertical bar graphs, the height of each bar equals the sum of the elements in the row. Each segment is equal to the value of its respective element. Redefining Y Y = [5 1 2 8 3 7 9 6 8 5 5 5 4 2 3]; Create stacked bar graphs using the optional 'stack' argument. For example: bar(Y,'stack') grid on set(gca,'Layer','top') % display gridlines on top of graph creates a 2-D stacked bar graph, where all elements in a row correspond to the same x location.

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Horizontal Bar Graphs For horizontal bar graphs, the length of each bar equals the sum of the elements in the row. The length of each segment is equal to the value of its respective element. barh(Y,'stack') grid on set(gca,'Layer','top') % Display gridlines on top of graph

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Specifying X-Axis Data

Bar graphs automatically generate x-axis values and label the x-axis tick lines. Specify a vector of x values (or y values in the case of horizontal bar graphs) to label the axes. For example, given temperature data, temp = [29 23 27 25 20 23 23 27]; obtained from samples taken every five days during a thirty-five day period, days = 0:5:35; you can display a bar graph showing temperature measured along the y-axis and days along the x-axis using bar(days,temp) These statements add labels to the x- and y-axis. xlabel('Day') ylabel('Temperature (^{o}C)')

Setting Y-Axis Limits By default, the y-axis range is from 0 to 30. To focus on the temperature range from 15 to 30, change the y-axis limits. set(gca,'YLim',[15 30],'Layer','top')

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Overlaying Bar Graphs

In addition to grouping and stacking barseries, you can overlay several bars that share the same baseline and yrange by making each series of bars a different width and plotting the widest ones first. The following example shows how to accomplish this within an axes: 1. Define x and y data; it probably helps to make spacing of x values constant: x=[1 3 5 7 9]; y1=[10 25 90 35 16]; K=0.5; 2. Plot Series 1 in blue, and set bar width to one-half an x unit: bar1=bar(x, y1, 'FaceColor', 'b', 'EdgeColor', 'b'); set(bar1,'BarWidth',K); 3. Define Series 2, and plot it in red over the first series: hold on; y2=[7 38 31 50 41]; bar2=bar(x, y2, 'FaceColor', 'r', 'EdgeColor', 'r'); 4. Set the width of the second series to half that of the first one: set(bar2,'BarWidth',K/2); hold off; legend('series1','series2')

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Overlaying Other Plots on Bar Graphs

You can overlay data on a bar graph by creating another axes in the same position. This enables you to have an independent y-axis for the overlaid data set in contrast to the hold on statement, which uses the same axes. For example, consider a bioremediation experiment that breaks down hazardous waste components into nontoxic materials. The trichloroethylene (TCE) concentration and temperature data from this experiment are TCE = [515 420 370 250 135 120 60 20]; temp = [29 23 27 25 20 23 23 27]; This data was obtained from samples taken every five days during a thirty-five day period: days = 0:5:35; Display a bar graph and label the x- and y-axis using the statements bar(days,temp) xlabel('Day') ylabel('Temperature (^{o}C)')

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Overlaying a Line Plot on the Bar Graph 1. To overlay the concentration data on the bar graph, position a second axes at the same location as the first axes, but first save the handle of the first axes: h1 = gca; 2. Create the second axes at the same location before plotting the second data set: h2 = axes('Position',get(h1,'Position')); plot(days,TCE,'LineWidth',3)

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3. To ensure that the second axes does not interfere with the first, locate the y-axis on the right side of the axes, make the background transparent, and set the second axes' x tick marks to the empty matrix: set(h2,'YAxisLocation','right','Color','none','XTickLabel',[]) 4. Align the x-axis of both axes and display the grid lines on top of the bars: set(h2,'XLim',get(h1,'XLim'),'Layer','top')

Annotating the Graph. These statements annotate the graph: text(11,380,'Concentration','Rotation',-55,'FontSize',16,... 'Color','Red') ylabel('TCE Concentration (PPM)') title('Bioremediation','FontSize',16)

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To print the graph, set the current figure's PaperPositionMode to auto, which ensures the printed output matches the display: set(gcf,'PaperPositionMode','auto')

Area Graphs
The area function displays curves generated from a vector or from separate columns in a matrix. area plots the values in each column of a matrix as a separate curve and fills the area between the curve and the x-axis. Area Graphs Showing Contributing Amounts Area graphs are useful for showing how elements in a vector or matrix contribute to the sum of all elements at a particular x location. By default, area accumulates all values from each row in a matrix and creates a curve from those values. The height of the area graph is the sum of the elements in each row. Each successive curve uses the preceding curve as its base. Using the matrix Y and the area function, display a graph containing three graph areas, one per column: Y = [5 1 2 8 3 7 9 6 8 5 5 5 4 2 3]; harea = area(Y) % This returns handles to three hggroups (areaseries objects) grid on

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Change the face color of each layer to make the plot more readable: set(harea(1),'FaceColor',[.5 .8 .9]) set(harea(2),'FaceColor',[.7 .9 .1]) set(harea(3),'FaceColor',[.9 1 1])

Displaying the Grid on Top. To display the grid lines in the foreground of the area graph and display only five grid lines along the x-axis, use the statements

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set(gca,'Layer','top') set(gca,'XTick',1:5)

Comparing Data Sets with Area Graphs

Area graphs are useful for comparing different data sets. For example, you can show sales together with profits, as follows: 1. Create a vector containing the income from sales: sales = [51.6 82.4 90.8 59.1 47.0]; 2. Create a vector containing the years in which the sales took place: x = 2004:2008; 3. Also create a vector of profits for the same five-year period: profits = [19.3 34.2 61.4 50.5 29.4]; 4. Use area to display profits and sales as two separate area graphs within the same axes. Set the color of the area interior (FaceColor), its edges (EdgeColor), and the width of the edge lines (LineWidth). See patch for a complete list of properties. area(x,sales,'FaceColor',[.5 .9 .6],... 'EdgeColor','b',... 'LineWidth',2) hold on area(x,profits,'FaceColor',[.9 .85 .7],... 'EdgeColor','y',... 'LineWidth',2) hold off
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You need to issue the command hold on to prevent the second graph from erasing the first one, and to turn hold off afterward because no more graphs will be plotted in the axes. The graph looks like this.

5. Make the x-ticks correspond to whole years and draw grid lines on top of the area graphs: set(gca,'XTick',x) set(gca,'XGrid','on') set(gca,'Layer','top')

6. Annotate the graph interactively, using the gtext function. It accepts a string to be placed as text annotation, and enters graphic input mode. Position the cross-hair cursor where you want the lower-left corner of the text

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to be, and click the mouse button to complete the command. Execute the following statements to add three interactive labels and two axis labels: disp('Click blue line to label Sales') gtext('\leftarrow Sales') disp('Click yellow line to label Expenses') gtext('\leftarrow Expenses') disp('Click green area to label Profits') gtext('Profits') xlabel('Years','FontSize',14) ylabel('Expenses + Profits = Sales in 1,000''s','FontSize',14)

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