So for example, subplot( 1, 3, ) would create a subplot grid that has three columns and a single plot that occupies the first two columns.

This is accomplished by passing in an array of linear indices as third argument, rather than just a single value. Image by author Using Different Sized PlotsĪ slightly more flexible way of using subplot() is to place sub-plots over multiple points in the grid. For convenience, I have also used the text() function to display the linear index in each subplot. Let’s start with a simple example that includes three sub-plots along a single row. It’s OK if this doesn’t make sense yet, the ordering is visualized in all of the examples within this section, and is especially obvious in the grid example. The index starts at 1 and increases from left to right and top to bottom. The third argument is a linear index that selects the current active plot axes.

The first two arguments define the number of rows and columns that will be included in the grid. The basic form of the subplot() command takes in three inputs: nRows, nCols, linearIndex. The subplot() function in MATLAB/Octave allows you to insert multiple plots on a grid within a single figure. The source code for the included examples can be found in the GitHub repository. The provided examples work in both MATLAB and Octave. In this tutorial, I describe three different ways to use the subplot() command and provide examples of each.

They can also be used to quickly create interactive Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs). They allow users to very quickly create customized data visualizations and displays. Sub-plotting is a very powerful feature in MATLAB.

Matlab subplot