MATLAB: Displaying correct marker type using text command

MATLABplottext;

Hi, I am trying to plot 12 different markers for a long series of monthly reocord and wish to display the legend using 'text' command so I don't have a separate line of legend for each month. Instead the marker used for a month stays constant across all years. However, am not able to display a 'square' in text command despite using marker 's' in the plot and similarly for other markers. Please help. I tried using interpreter as latex and a '$' sign but got nothing. Here is a sample reproducible ex. I tried on Matlab 2015a.
Thanks in advance.
% sample code starts
temp=rand(14);
color_vector=zeros(14,3);
color_vector(13,:)=[1 0 0];
color_vector(14,:)=[1 0 0];
MarkerSet='so^d*+hvp><xso' % repeats after 12th entry 
Present_year=2018
x_1=1.1;
x_2=1.5;
x_3=1.8;
y_top=2;
next_row_rel_loc=0.2;
font_val=10;
hold on
for ii = 1 : 3
  plot(temp(ii,1:3),'marker',MarkerSet(ii),'markersize',10,'markeredgecolor',color_vector(ii,:),'LineStyle','none','linewidth',1)  
end %ii
ylim([-2 2])
text(x_1,y_top, 'Month','FontSize',font_val)  %Curr Year  Prev Year')
text(x_2,y_top, num2str(Present_year),'FontSize',font_val)  
text(x_3, y_top, 'Prev. Yr','FontSize',font_val)
text(x_1,y_top-next_row_rel_loc, 'Jan','FontSize',font_val)
text(x_2, y_top-next_row_rel_loc, '\color{red} s','FontSize',font_val)
text(x_3, y_top-next_row_rel_loc, '\color{black} s','FontSize',font_val)
text(x_1,y_top-next_row_rel_loc*2, 'Feb','FontSize',font_val)
text(x_2, y_top-next_row_rel_loc*2, '\color{red} o','FontSize',font_val)
text(x_3, y_top-next_row_rel_loc*2, '\color{black} o','FontSize',font_val)%,'interpreter', 'latex'
%end of sample code

Best Answer

"wish to display the legend using 'text' command so I don't have a separate line of legend for each month"
That is not the approach to use. Instead, construct a series of line() objects with x and y both nan, and with the appropriate color and symbol choice for the markers. Record the handle of each of those line objects into a single vector. Then legend() passing that vector of handles as the first parameter, and appropriate legend entries in the other parameter(s).
Because of the nan x and y data, the line objects will not appear on the display, but they will exist and legend() can display entries for them.
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