Page 30 - Basics of MATLAB and Beyond

4.7 Axes
So far we have allowed matlab to choose the axes for our plots. You
can change the axes in many ways:

axis([xmin xmax ymin ymax ]) sets the axes’ minimum and
maximum values
axis square makes the axes the same length
axis equal makes the axes the same scale
axis tight sets the axes limits to the range of the data
axis auto allows matlab to choose axes limits
axis off removes the axes leaving only the plotted data
axis on puts the axes back again
grid on draws dotted grid lines
grid off removes grid lines
grid toggles the grid
box ∗ toggles the box
zeroaxes ∗ draws the x-axis at y = 0 and vice-versa
∗
The functions marked with an asterisk are nonstandard features, imple-
mented in this book’s companion m-files. 1

4.8 Labels

You can put labels, titles, and text on a plot by using the commands:
xlabel(’text ’)
ylabel(’text ’)
zlabel(’text ’)
title(’text ’)
text(x,y,’text ’) places text at position x,y
gtext(’text ’) use mouse to place text
To put mathematics in labels you can use matlab’s backslash nota-
tion (familiar to users of the T X typesetting system):
E
t = 0:.1:2*pi;
y1 = cos(t);
y2 = sin(t);
plot(t,y1,t,y2)
xlabel(’0 \leq \theta < 2\pi’)
ylabel(’sin \theta, cos \theta’)
text(1,cos(1),’ cosine’)
text(3,sin(3),’ sine’)
box
1
matlab version 5.3 implements its own version of the box command.

c 2000 by CRC Press LLC