MATLAB: Subplot disappearing after changing left edge position

subplot positions left edge

Hi everyone, thanks for your help in advance.
I have the following code to generate a series of subplots (to animate some data).
         num_plot = 3;
         x0 = [0];
         y0 = [0];
         y1 = [0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1];
         y2 = [0.2 0.4 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.4 0.2];
         x3 = [-0.5 -0.4 -0.3 -0.2 0 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5];
         y3 = [0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0];
         set(0, 'DefaultFigurePosition', [200, 100, 1500, 800]);
         figure;
    xi10 = 0.12;
    yi10 = 0.10;
    xi11 = -0.01;
    yi11 = 0.10;
    xi12 = 0.05;
    yi12 = 0.13;
    for k = 1: length(y1)
    clf;
    subplot(num_plot,1,1);
    bar(y1(k), 'b');
    axis off;
    set(subplot(num_plot,1,1), 'Position', [xi10, yi10, 0.01, 0.2]);
    axis([0.6, 1.2, 0, 2]);
    subplot(num_plot,1,2);
    barh(-y2(k), 'g');
    axis off;
    set(subplot(num_plot,1,2), 'Position', [xi11, yi11, 0.15, 0.01]);
    axis([-2, 0, 0.9, 1.1]);
    subplot(num_plot,1,3);
    plot([x0, x3(k)], [y0, y3(k)],'r', 'LineWidth', 5);
    axis off;
    set(subplot(num_plot,1,3), 'Position', [xi12, yi12, 0.1, 0.1]);
    axis([-1, 1, 0, 1]);
    pause(0.75);
    end;
Since the bar and the barh charts don't line up nicely, I tried to shift the position slightly by setting xi10 = 0.125. However doing so caused the bar chart to disappear. Does anyone know how the Positions of the left edges affect the subplots? More precisely, how should the left edges be defined so that both subplots show up? Thanks so much for your help!

Best Answer

One of the features of subplot() is that if there is an axis that would at all be "covered" by the calculated axis position, then the existing axis is deleted unless it would be in exactly the same position.
Therefore you should create all your subplot before repositioning them. Towards this end, remember that you can record the output from subplot() to give you the axis handle.
ax3 = subplot(num_plot,1,3);
plot(ax3, [x0, x3(k)], [y0, y3(k)],'r', 'LineWidth', 5);
axis(ax3, 'off');
axis(ax3, [-1, 1, 0, 1]);
and eventually when all of the plots have been created,
set(ax3, 'Position', [xi12, yi12, 0.1, 0.1])
Related Question