Wind Rose and Polar Bar Charts in MATLAB^®

Create Histogram Chart in Polar Coordinates

Create a vector of values between 0 and 2π. Create a histogram chart that shows the data sorted into six bins.

theta = [0.1 1.1 5.4 3.4 2.3 4.5 3.2 3.4 5.6 2.3 2.1 3.5 0.6 6.1];
polarhistogram(theta,6)

fig2plotly(gcf, 'TreatAs', 'polarhistogram');

Specify Number of Bins for Polar Histogram Chart

Create a histogram plot from 100,000 values between -π and π, and sort the data into 25 bins.

theta = atan2(rand(100000,1)-0.5,2*(rand(100000,1)-0.5));
polarhistogram(theta,25);

fig2plotly(gcf, 'TreatAs', 'polarhistogram');

Modify Appearance of Histogram Chart

Create a histogram chart in polar coordinates, and then change its appearance. Specify the bar colors by setting the FaceColor property to a character vector of a color name, such as 'red', or an RGB triplet. Specify the transparency by setting the FaceAlpha property to a value between 0 and 1.

theta = atan2(rand(10000,1)-0.3,2*(rand(10000,1)-0.2));
polarhistogram(theta,25,'FaceColor','red','FaceAlpha',.3);

fig2plotly(gcf, 'TreatAs', 'polarhistogram');

Modify Appearance of Histogram Chart After Creation

Create a histogram chart in polar coordinates. Assign the histogram object to the variable h.

theta = atan2(rand(100000,1)-0.5,2*(rand(100000,1)-0.5));
h = polarhistogram(theta,25);

fig2plotly(gcf, 'TreatAs', 'polarhistogram');

Use h to access and modify properties of the histogram object after it is created. For example, show just the histogram outline by setting the DisplayStyle property of the histogram object.

theta = atan2(rand(100000,1)-0.5,2*(rand(100000,1)-0.5));
h = polarhistogram(theta,25);

h.DisplayStyle = 'stairs';

fig2plotly(gcf, 'TreatAs', 'polarhistogram');