Error Bars in MATLAB^®

Plot Vertical Error Bars of Equal Length

Create vectors x and y. Plot y versus x. At each data point, display vertical error bars that are equal in length.

x = 1:10:100;
y = [20 30 45 40 60 65 80 75 95 90];
err = 8*ones(size(y));
errorbar(x,y,err)

fig2plotly(gcf);

Plot Vertical Error Bars that Vary in Length

Create a line plot with error bars at each data point. Vary the lengths of the error bars.

x = 1:10:100;
y = [20 30 45 40 60 65 80 75 95 90]; 
err = [5 8 2 9 3 3 8 3 9 3];
errorbar(x,y,err)

fig2plotly(gcf);

Plot Horizontal Error Bars

Create a line plot with horizontal error bars at each data point.

x = 1:10:100;
y = [20 30 45 40 60 65 80 75 95 90];
err = [1 3 5 3 5 3 6 4 3 3];
errorbar(x,y,err,'horizontal')

fig2plotly(gcf);

Plot Vertical and Horizontal Error Bars

Create a line plot with both vertical and horizontal error bars at each data point.

x = 1:10:100;
y = [20 30 45 40 60 65 80 75 95 90];
err = [4 3 5 3 5 3 6 4 3 3];
errorbar(x,y,err,'both')

fig2plotly(gcf);

Plot Error Bars with No Line

Plot vectors y versus x. At each data point, display a circle marker with both vertical and horizontal error bars. Do not display the line that connects the data points by omitting the line style option for the linespec input argument.

x = 1:10:100;
y = [20 30 45 40 60 65 80 75 95 90];
err = [4 3 5 3 5 3 6 4 3 3];
errorbar(x,y,err,'both','o')

fig2plotly(gcf);

Control Error Bars Lengths in All Directions

Display both vertical and horizontal error bars at each data point. Control the lower and upper lengths of the vertical error bars using the yneg and ypos input argument options, respectively. Control the left and right lengths of the horizontal error bars using the xneg and xpos input argument options, respectively.

x = 1:10:100;
y = [20 30 45 40 60 65 80 75 95 90];
yneg = [1 3 5 3 5 3 6 4 3 3];
ypos = [2 5 3 5 2 5 2 2 5 5];
xneg = [1 3 5 3 5 3 6 4 3 3];
xpos = [2 5 3 5 2 5 2 2 5 5];
errorbar(x,y,yneg,ypos,xneg,xpos,'o')

fig2plotly(gcf);

Plot Datetime Values with Error Bars

Create a plot of datetime values with error bars in duration units.

x = 1:13;
y = datetime(2018,5,1,1:13,0,0);
err = hours(rand(13,1));
errorbar(x,y,err)

fig2plotly(gcf);

Add Colored Markers to Each Data Point

Create a line plot with error bars. At each data point, display a marker. Control the appearance of the marker using name-value pair arguments. Use MarkerSize to specify the marker size in points. Use MarkerEdgeColor and MarkerFaceColor to specify the marker outline and interior colors, respectively. Set the colors to either a character vector of a color name, such as 'red', or an RGB triplet.

x = linspace(0,10,15);
y = sin(x/2);
err = 0.3*ones(size(y));
errorbar(x,y,err,'-s','MarkerSize',10,...
    'MarkerEdgeColor','red','MarkerFaceColor','red')

fig2plotly(gcf);

Control Error Bar Cap Size

Control the size of the caps at the end of each error bar by setting the CapSize property to a positive value in points.

x = linspace(0,2,15);
y = exp(x);
err = 0.3*ones(size(y));
errorbar(x,y,err,'CapSize',18)

fig2plotly(gcf);

Modify Error Bars After Creation

Create a line plot with error bars. Assign the errorbar object to the variable e.

x = linspace(0,10,10);
y = sin(x/2);
err = 0.3*ones(size(y));
e = errorbar(x,y,err);

fig2plotly(gcf);

Use e to access properties of the errorbar object after it is created.

x = linspace(0,10,10);
y = sin(x/2);
err = 0.3*ones(size(y));
e = errorbar(x,y,err);

e.Marker = '*';
e.MarkerSize = 10;
e.Color = 'red';
e.CapSize = 15;

fig2plotly(gcf);