How to plot subplots with zero gaps and x and y labels at the sides?

I would like to plot lots of histograms. They all have the same size (xlim, ylim), so equal size plots. How to put them next to each other with zero gap? I would like to use the hist function to generate the histograms. Morover I dont want any tics and lebels, just at the top of each column, and at the left side of each rows (a single string is enough like: 'col1' 'row2' etc.)

Answer 1

[Nidhi Jain]

Hi,

One way could be to plot all the histograms using "subplot". You can then remove the X and Y ticks using command:

set(gca,'xtick',[])
set(gca,'ytick',[])

Then click on Tools -> Edit Plot and modify the location of the plot by dragging them. You can also add titles and labels using Insert option. Then generate code from the File option.

If this is not feasible, you can try to modify the location of the subplots manually using "pos" property of subplot.

Suppose, we have a subplot like this:

figure
h1 = subplot(2,2,1)
hist(4)
set(gca,'xtick',[])
set(gca,'ytick',[])

You can now modify the position of the subplot using:

p1 = get(h1, 'pos');
p1(3) = p1(3) + 0.05;
p1(2) = p1(2) - 0.06;
set(h1, 'pos', p1);

This can be done for all the subplots till the gap between each of them reduces.

HTH

[Mike Garrity]

Yes, that's right. But when you're packing the axes together this tight, and you have to start overriding the Position property, there's really not a lot of advantage to using subplot. It's probably going to get in your way more than it will help.

I might consider using the axes command directly. Something like this:

% # of rows & columns
nr = 2;
nc = 2;
% Margins
left = .1;
right = .01;
top = .1;
bottom = .02;
% Size of cells
w = (1-left-right)/nc;
h = (1-top-bottom)/nr;
for r=1:nr
  for c=1:nc
    % Position of this cell
    pos = [left+(c-1)*w, bottom+(r-1)*h, w, h];
    % Create axes
    a = axes('Position',pos,'LooseInset',[0 0 0 0]);
    % Add histogram (replace with hist in earlier versions)
    histogram(randn(1,100))
    % customize axes
    set(a,'XTick',[],'YTick',[],'XLim',[-4 4],'YLim',[0 40])
    if c==1
      set(a,'YAxisLocation','left');
      ylabel(['Row ', num2str(r)])
    end
    if r==nr
      set(a,'XAxisLocation','top');
      xlabel(['Column ', num2str(c)])
    end
  end
end

[Mr M.]

Thank you very much! The concept is exactly the same what I want, and it works for me, and this is a very general solution! I think it would be very useful for others also. Thanks again. How can I give you my vote?

However I want to ask, what is the purpose of 'LooseInset', because without that, I get the same result!

[Mike Garrity]

However I want to ask, what is the purpose of 'LooseInset', because without that, I get the same result!

Oops, I should have deleted that. You're right, it's not required.

[Mr M.]

Another question: how to set margin to be the same size as the text, so labels fit exactly into the left and top margins.

Another very little thing: at the corners of the subplots, the axes join to each other in a very ugly way (if you zoom in). Maybe the problem is the endpoint style of the lines. It is possible to make rounded endpoints or something like that?

And a third problem: I want a global title. So I tried to put something like this at the begining:

title_height = 0.05; figure('units','normalized','outerposition',[0 0 1 1]); axes_position = [0,0,1,1-title_height]; plot_axes = axes('Position',axes_position); set(plot_axes,'XTick',[],'YTick',[],'xcolor','none'); title('Title');

The problem is that axes are visible in pdf output. I tried 'color','white' and 'xcolor','white' and 'box','off', 'linewidth',0 etc. but none of them is working!