Reducing the distance among subplot figures?

I am using a subplot option to plot parts of a figure. Is there is a possibility to reduce the distance between the two figures, without affecting their dimensions (as shown by the arrows). For example, we can create more columns in subplot, but I am avoiding that. Thanks.

Answer 1

[Sulaymon Eshkabilov]

Set up axis position of subplots, e,g:

x=0:1:360; y=-180:1:180; G = cos(x)+sin(y(:));
 HA(1) = subplot(221);  
 surf(G) 
 HA(2) = subplot(222); 
 mesh(G) 
 set(HA(1))
 POS = get(HA(1), 'Position' )
 POS(1) = 0.02 ;                       % Position move 
 POS(3) = 0.5 ;                        % Position move 
 set(HA(1), 'Position', POS) ;

[FW]

Thanks, it seems expand to the first figure by changing the width of the first one. I wanted that the dimensions of the figure remained the same and only their distance between them decreased. Is there a solution?

[DGM]

Maybe this is more like what you're after

x = rand(100,1);
% these two plots get adjusted
HA(1) = subplot(2,2,1);
plot(x)
HA(2) = subplot(2,2,2);
plot(x)
% these two plots are unchanged
subplot(2,2,3);
plot(x)
subplot(2,2,4);
plot(x)

gapscale = 0.5; % pick a number
P = vertcat(HA.Position);
gap = P(2,1)-(P(1,1)+P(1,3));
P(:,3) = P(1,3)+gap*(1-gapscale)/2;
P(2,1) = P(2,1)-gap*(1-gapscale)/2;
HA(1).Position = P(1,:);
HA(2).Position = P(2,:);

Note that the outer padding between the axes and the figure window is preserved. Only the horizontal space between the axes is being adjusted.

[FW]

Thanks. It seems there is no simple solution. I basically wanted to introduce break x-axis by bringing two figures very close together without changing their dimensions (this was to be done in Powerpoint afterwards to hide the y-axis of the second one). It seems MATLAB is not a good choice for introducing axes breaks. I wanted to more subplots underneath.

[DGM]

I'm not really sure how close you wanted them or whether this could be done with a single axes. Should the plot boxes stay slightly separated? Did you want to maintain the box size or maintain the outer positions?

x = rand(100,1);
% bring these two together by stretching the boxes
HA(1) = subplot(2,2,1);
plot(x)
HA(2) = subplot(2,2,2);
plot(x)

gapscale = 0; % zero gap
P = vertcat(HA.Position);
gap = P(2,1)-(P(1,1)+P(1,3));
P(:,3) = P(1,3)+gap*(1-gapscale)/2;
P(2,1) = P(2,1)-gap*(1-gapscale)/2;
HA(1).Position = P(1,:);
HA(2).Position = P(2,:);
HA(2).YTick = [];

% bring these two together by moving the boxes
HA(1) = subplot(2,2,3);
plot(x)
HA(2) = subplot(2,2,4);
plot(x)

gapscale = 0; % zero gap
P = vertcat(HA.Position);
gap = P(2,1)-(P(1,1)+P(1,3));
P(1,1) = P(1,1)+gap*(1-gapscale)/2;
P(2,1) = P(2,1)-gap*(1-gapscale)/2;
HA(1).Position = P(1,:);
HA(2).Position = P(2,:);
HA(2).YTick = [];

Either way, you're going to have to deal with the fact that the ticklabels collide

Answer 2

[the cyclist]

Not a direct answer to this question, but the newer tiledlayout method has greater flexibility in this regard. (For example, there is a TileSpacing property that can be set to "compact", which is what you want.)

[FW]

Thanks. I think this is feature of 2021. I have 2019 and I am getting and error.

[the cyclist]

It was introduced in R2019b, so guessing you have R2019a.

Answer 3

[DGM]

This is a bit of a workaround, but I've been using it for a long time. It works in older versions and it doesn't require a bunch of tedious wrangling of plot properties.

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/30884-controllable-tight-subplot

Answer 4

[Matt J]

Here is yet another FEX offering that allows flexible control over subplot spacing:

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/3696-subaxis-subplot