pgfplotspgfplotstable
Is it possible to define custom styles and use them to display columns?
I have 10 columns, 3 of which are strings and the rest are floating point numbers with a series of options I've defined. I'd like to define both styles (one for the strings and one for the numbers) and reference them in my TeX code for each column instead of copying and pasting them multiple times.
As @percusse stated correctly, the root challenge here is that these columns/<name>/.style things are only interpreted in the context of \pgfplotstabletypeset.
A solution which is also a direct answer to your question and solves the MWE means to query the information from the correct context. This is simpler than it sounds and I can give such an example below. It does not need ANY knowledge of internals of pgfplotstable. It only relies on pgfkeys and basic TeX expansion control.
Here is the solution:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{pgfplots, pgfplotstable, filecontents}
\pgfplotsset{compat=1.6}
\begin{filecontents}{test.dat}
Time Distance
0 0
1 1
3 2
\end{filecontents}
\pgfplotstableset{
columns/Time/.style={
column name={$t_{\alpha}$},
},
columns/Distance/.style={
column name={$D_{\alpha}$},
},
}
% defines \devendraretval to contain the display name for the column
% named '#1'
%
% #1: a column name
\def\getcolumndisplayname#1{%
% we WANT a group. Otherwise, any values set in these style would
% become global and they would be mixed up between different
% columns.
\begingroup
% Access the contents of column's display name programmatrically:
\pgfplotstableset{columns/#1/.try}%
\pgfkeysgetvalue{/pgfplots/table/column name}\temp
\ifx\temp\empty
% oh. We have no such value! Ok, use the column name as
% such.
\edef\temp{#1}%
\fi
% this here is one of the possible patterns to communicate a
% local variable outside of a local group:
\global\let\GLOBALTEMP=\temp
\endgroup
\let\devendraretval=\GLOBALTEMP
%
}%
\begin{document}
\thispagestyle{empty}
\pgfplotstableread{test.dat}\loadedtable
\pgfplotstabletypeset{\loadedtable}
\pgfplotstableforeachcolumn\loadedtable\as\col{%
%
\getcolumndisplayname{\col}%
column name is ‘\col’; index is \pgfplotstablecol; display name is `\devendraretval'\par
}
\getcolumndisplayname{Time}%
Value of Time is \devendraretval.
\end{document}
It defines a new command `\getcolumndisplayname{}' which retrieves it.
Please refer to http://pgfplots.sourceforge.net/TeX-programming-notes.pdf for details about the basic instructions.
Ok, I did get somewhere, but it's still no full solution; so if anyone can suggest a better approach, I'd rather accept that answer.
The "Could not parse input '' as a floating point number" got solved by using xticklabels from table in the groupplot options AND x expr instead of x index in the \addplot table options. (Note, I've also tried with symbolic x coords and x index=\coordindex, and with that got:
" ! Package pgfplots Error: Sorry, the input coordinate `0' has not been defined
with 'symbolic x coords={c002,c003,c004,}... Maybe it has been misspelled?."
). I got to that thanks to this comment from pgfplots: how to load distinct symbolic ticks/labels from file?
"flexible ticklabels from table won't help here, because that's just for generating the labels, but not the coordinates. You're currently plotting the data points at (i|i), where i is the coordinate index, so filtering duplicates out of the labels won't help you. Rather, you need to map a, b, c... to x=1, 2, 3... and X, Y, Z to y=1, 2, 3... (which is what symbolic x coords does)."
Not sure I fully understand that, but what I need is that the labels for x=0,1,2,... are "c002","c003","c004",... - so that eventually I could control discontinuities by setting xmin and xmax as numbers (and the labels would follow those settings).
For the second part, I really couldn't find a proper syntax for \addplot table - so here I iterate through the table, and create a coordinate list, that I use with \addplot coordinates. And finally I get a rendering close to what I want:
... but with the problem, that xlabels are incorrect - if I use . (see edit below)xtick=data, only the first ("c002") is shown at correct location (probably the others are not shown because I do not use \addplot table here); if I don't use it, as above, then only "c003" and "c004" are printed, but not on a correct location
So, if anyone can suggest how to make the xtick labels correct, and if there is a syntax so I can achieve the same output with \addplot table instead (without having to loop through the table to re-create coordinates), please post back an answer.
Here is the MWE so far:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\usepackage{pgfplotstable}
\usepackage{adjustbox}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{pgfplots.groupplots}
\usetikzlibrary{shapes}
\usetikzlibrary{positioning}
\usetikzlibrary{decorations.pathreplacing}
\usepackage{etoolbox}
\pgfplotstableread[
col sep=comma,
header=false,
columns/0/.style={string type}, % nowork here; on table typeset only
]{
c002,128,64,0.000119,-1,-1,0.000162,-1,-1,0.000494,-1,-1,0.001540,1,65,0.001906,0,1,0.002997,1,1,0.003341,0,65,0.004432,1,65,0.004797,0,1,0.005889,1,1,0.006253,0,65,
c003,128,64,0.000166,-1,-1,0.000463,-1,-1,0.001546,1,65,0.001936,0,1,0.002981,1,1,0.003362,0,65,0.004437,1,65,0.004939,0,1,0.005918,1,1,0.006269,0,65,,,,
c004,128,64,0.000118,-1,-1,0.000161,-1,-1,0.000456,-1,-1,0.001518,1,65,0.001903,0,1,0.002973,1,1,0.003339,0,65,0.004410,1,65,0.004795,0,1,0.005866,1,1,0.006252,0,65,
}\mytable
\pgfplotstablegetrowsof{\mytable} %Determine no. of rows
\pgfmathtruncatemacro{\rows}{\pgfplotsretval} % pgfmathsetmacro float, this int
\pgfmathtruncatemacro{\lastrow}{\rows-1}
\pgfplotstablegetcolsof{\mytable} %
\edef\numcolsstr{\pgfplotsretval}%
\pgfmathtruncatemacro{\lastcol}{\numcolsstr-1}
\begin{document}
% https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/153853/pgfplots-how-to-load-distinct-symbolic-ticks-labels-from-file/153971#153971
\def\xlistmacro{}
\def\xliststring{}
\pgfplotstableforeachcolumnelement{[index]0}\of\mytable\as\entry{%
\xifinlist{\entry}{\xlistmacro}{}{
\listxadd{\xlistmacro}{\entry}
\edef\xliststring{\xliststring\entry,}
}
}
\begin{center}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{groupplot}[
group style={
group name=my fancy plots,
group size=1 by 1,
yticklabels at=edge left,
%xticklabels at=edge bottom,
%vertical sep=0pt,
horizontal sep=0pt,
% no xtick/labels here: ! Undefined control sequence.
%\mytable ->\pgfpl@@ {0}\pgfpl@@ {1}
%xticklabels from table={\mytable}{0},%{[index]0},
%xtick=data,
},
height=6cm,
ymin=0, ymax=7e-3,
domain=0:80,
xticklabels from table={\mytable}{0},%{[index]0},
%xticklabels/.expand once={\xliststring}, % also works
% xtick=data, % will only print the first, 'c002', and no others
xlabel=test variants,
x tick label style={rotate=-45, anchor=west, align=center, font=\tiny},
x=0.5cm, % set x scale (for width)
/tikz/only marks, % no lines - scatter plot
]
\nextgroupplot[
xmin=0,xmax=5,
axis y line=left,
%axis x discontinuity=parallel, % disc. is at start, so avoid for first
axis x line=bottom,
x axis line style=-, % switch off the axis arrow tips,
%width=4.5cm, % don't set width,
% y filter/.code={\ifx\pgfmathresult\empty\else#1\fi},
mark=o, % is ignored for individual addplots
]
%%\coordindex yields the current index of the table row (starting with 0).
%% the below works as expected (but don't know how to select only certain
%% samples via table - so here only one sample is plotted as per y expr):
% \addplot table[
% %x index = \coordindex, % causes: Could not parse input 'c002' as a floating point
% x expr = \coordindex, % passes!
% y expr = \thisrowno{3},
% ] \mytable;
%
%% NOTE: in pgfplots 1.5.1, adding even empty braces to \addplot here
%% causes the coordinates plot not to be shown! example - try the below:
% \addplot[] coordinates{ (0,2e-4) (0,4e-4) };
\foreach \r in {0,1,...,\lastrow}{%
\xdef\tempCoords{} %
\pgfplotstablegetelem{\r}{[index]0}\of\mytable%
\xdef\rowlabel{\pgfplotsretval}
\foreach \c in {1,2,...,\lastcol}{ % skip column 0
\pgfmathtruncatemacro{\modres}{mod(\c,3)} % modulo
\ifnum\modres=0{%
\pgfplotstablegetelem{\r}{[index]\c}\of\mytable%
%\typeout{[\r,\c]: '\pgfplotsretval' \ifx\pgfplotsretval\empty EMPTY \else\fi } % [199,27]: '' EMPTY ...
\ifx\pgfplotsretval\empty\else{
\xdef\tempCoords{\tempCoords (\r,\pgfplotsretval)\space}}\fi % end \ifx
% \xdef\tempCoords{\tempCoords (\rowlabel,\pgfplotsretval)\space}}\fi % end \ifx
}\fi % end \ifnum
} % end \foreach \c
\typeout{coordinates {\tempCoords};}
% note: using this plainly:
%\addplot coordinates {\tempCoords};
% causes: ! Package pgfplots Error: Sorry, I could not read the plot coordinates near '(0,0.000119) ...
% note: have to use \addplot+[] here, else \addplot[] resets!
% also, color=blue controls stroke of mark, but not its fill
\edef\temp{ \noexpand\addplot+[color=blue,mark=*,mark options={blue},] coordinates{ \tempCoords }; }
\temp % execute addplot command
} % end \foreach \r
\end{groupplot}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{center}
\end{document}
EDIT: got the labels to solve; simply, do one \addplot table before the for loop, where simply the y value is set to 0; this would "plot" invisible points at the (xtickindex,0) coordinate - and forces the labels to appear. So simply paste this snippet before the \foreach (and enable the xtick=data) in the MWE above:
% use [mark=*,mark options={red}] to debug
\addplot+[mark=none] table[x expr=\coordindex, y expr=0.0] \mytable;
... and then the output is finally as expected:
Best Answer
Yes, this is certainly possible, as demonstrated in, for example, text size in pgfplotstable tables
In the code below, the relevant parts are:
which are then used with
Remember that
pgfplotstablecolumn indexes start at 0.If you use the line
then you'll see that the output is, as expected:
Here's a complete MWE: