[Tex/LaTex] How to indicate error bars on the legend symbols in pgfplots

pgfplots

I am transitioning to using pgfplots to do most of my plots these days, however I am not always able to get the plots looking as I want them to.

I am plotting some data points with error bars, and it would be great if I could get the legend to reflect this, e.g. similar to the ones produced by gnuplot. Here is basically what I want vs what I have (gnuplot on left, pgfplots on right)

what I want ->
what I get ->

And the mandatory MWE basically copied from the manual but with a legend

    \documentclass{article}
    \usepackage{pgfplots}
    \pgfplotsset{compat=1.12}

    \begin{document}
    \begin{tikzpicture}
      \begin{axis} [
        legend style={
          at={(0.05,0.95)}, anchor=north west
        },
      ]
        \addplot+ [
          only marks,
          error bars/.cd,
            y dir=both, y fixed=0.1,
        ]
        coordinates {
          (0,0)
          (0.1,0.1)
          (0.2,0.2)
          (0.5,0.5)
          (1,1)
        };
        \addlegendentry{Data}
      \end{axis}
    \end{tikzpicture}
    \end{document}

I would assume it is possible to do this with \addlegendimage but I am not fluent enough in pgfplots to find out how to automatise this process for every node style.

Edit: Here is the result from compiling the MWE for future reference

Best Answer

To be able to distinguish the legend drawing you can use the legend image post style which appends additional options to only the legend but not to the plot itself. And if only marks is given to a plot you can override it back via sharp plot. For the error bar notation you can use the | arrow head.

Hence you can just add the following to your axis options

legend image post style={sharp plot,|-|}

and it gives

If these don't satisfy your specs then you can basically draw your own legend image via legend image code explained in the manual.

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] plotting two time series with bounds

This happens because PGFPlots only uses one "stack" per axis: You're stacking the second confidence interval on top of the first. The easiest way to fix this is probably to use the approach described in "Is there an easy way of using line thickness as error indicator in a plot?": After plotting the first confidence interval, stack the upper bound on top again, using stack dir=minus. That way, the stack will be reset to zero, and you can draw the second confidence interval in the same fashion as the first:

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{pgfplots, tikz}

\usepackage{pgfplotstable}

\pgfplotstableread{
temps   y_h y_h__inf    y_h__sup    y_f y_f__inf    y_f__sup    

1   0.237340    0.135170    0.339511    0.237653    0.135482    0.339823    
2   0.561320    0.422007    0.700633    0.165871    0.026558    0.305184    
3   0.694760    0.534205    0.855314    0.074856    -0.085698   0.235411    
4   0.728306    0.560179    0.896432    0.003361    -0.164765   0.171487    
5   0.711710    0.544944    0.878477    -0.044582   -0.211349   0.122184    
6   0.671241    0.511191    0.831291    -0.073347   -0.233397   0.086703    
7   0.621177    0.471219    0.771135    -0.088418   -0.238376   0.061540    
8   0.569354    0.431826    0.706882    -0.094382   -0.231910   0.043146    
9   0.519973    0.396571    0.643376    -0.094619   -0.218022   0.028783    
10  0.475121    0.366990    0.583251    -0.091467   -0.199598   0.016664    
}{\table}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}

    \begin{axis}
    % y_h confidence interval
    \addplot [stack plots=y, fill=none, draw=none, forget plot]   table [x=temps, y=y_h__inf]   {\table} \closedcycle;
    \addplot [stack plots=y, fill=gray!50, opacity=0.4, draw opacity=0, area legend]   table [x=temps, y expr=\thisrow{y_h__sup}-\thisrow{y_h__inf}]   {\table} \closedcycle;
    % subtract the upper bound so our stack is back at zero
    \addplot [stack plots=y, stack dir=minus, forget plot, draw=none] table [x=temps, y=y_h__sup] {\table};

    % y_f confidence interval
    \addplot [stack plots=y, fill=none, draw=none, forget plot]   table [x=temps, y=y_f__inf]   {\table} \closedcycle;
    \addplot [stack plots=y, fill=gray!50, opacity=0.4, draw opacity=0, area legend]   table [x=temps, y expr=\thisrow{y_f__sup}-\thisrow{y_f__inf}]   {\table} \closedcycle;

    % the line plots (y_h and y_f)    
    \addplot [stack plots=false, very thick,smooth,blue]  table [x=temps, y=y_h]   {\table};
    \addplot [stack plots=false, very thick,smooth,blue]  table [x=temps, y=y_f]   {\table};
    \end{axis}

\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

[Tex/LaTex] How to hide empty (value 0) ybars with pgfplots

You can use

 y filter/.expression={y==0 ? nan : y}

in the options of \addplot.

\documentclass{article}

% ---------------------------------- tikz
\usepackage{pgfplots}          % to print charts
\pgfplotsset{compat=1.12}

\begin{document}

\begin{figure}
  \centering
  \begin{tikzpicture}
    \begin{axis} [
      % general
      ybar,
      scale only axis,
      height=0.5\textwidth,
      width=1.2\textwidth,
      ylabel={\# Dots},
      nodes near coords,
      xlabel={Variation},
      xticklabel style={
        rotate=90,
        anchor=east,
      },
      %enlarge x limits={abs value={3}},
      ]
      \addplot+[y filter/.expression={y==0 ? nan : y}] table [
        x=grade,
        y=value,
      ] {
grade   value
-11 0
-10 0
-9  0
-8  0
-7  0
-6  0
-5  3
-4  1
-3  2
-2  15
-1  11
0   179
1   8
2   1
3   0
4   1
5   2
6   0
7   0
8   0
9   0
10  0
11  0
      };
    \end{axis}
  \end{tikzpicture}
\end{figure}
\end{document}

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] plotting two time series with bounds

[Tex/LaTex] How to hide empty (value 0) ybars with pgfplots

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