MATLAB: Get next plot color

color

When using the function plot with hold set to 'all', each call to plot uses the successive entry in the ColorOrder property of the current axes. Is there a way to find out what is the color the next call to plot will use, if it is not known how many calls to plot have already been executed?

In other words, here is an example to clarify my question: plot(x,bob) hold all plot(x,garry) … (unknown number of calls to plot)

What will be the color of the next plot?

Thanks, David

Best Answer

I think the number of children should equal the number of calls to plot. You need to use mod to loop through the colors (i.e if the number of plots is greater than the number of colors).

colorOrder = get(gca, 'ColorOrder');
plot(1:10, 'Color', colorOrder(mod(length(get(gca, 'Children')), size(colorOrder, 1))+1, :))

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MATLAB: Plot without axis but with background

t=0:0.1:10;
hFig = figure;
y=sin(t);
plot(t,y);
color = get(hFig,'Color');
set(gca,'XColor',color,'YColor',color,'TickDir','out')

MATLAB: Where in the axes properties (or elsewhere) is the “pointer” on the next color of ColorOrder

Maybe not exactly what you wanted but a workaround:

fH = figure;
aH = axes;
lH = plot(rand(10,1),'r');
your_colors = get(fH,'DefaultAxesColorOrder');
colorIdx = find(ismember(your_colors,get(lH,'Color'),'rows'));
nextColorIdx = mod(colorIdx + 1, size(your_colors,1));
nextColor = your_colors(nextColorIdx,:);

I think creating your own custom color order and cycling through it would be better. The snippet I gave you will not work if the color of the line you plot is not in the default colors.

Best Answer

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MATLAB: Plot without axis but with background

MATLAB: Where in the axes properties (or elsewhere) is the “pointer” on the next color of ColorOrder

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