[Tex/LaTex] pgfplots – How to define one cycle list for all graphs (or the least amount possible)

pgfplots

Due to all the maintenance after changing a color in a list, I tried to define just one cycle list so I do not have to update all my lists anymore. It is all in all an annoyingly huge amount of time, which I rather spend on something else.

I already worked out a solved MWE and this is more of a question for reassurance. But if others are looking for a similar solution, this question might help them. I suppose there is one possible drawback to it: the font is also colored.

So: is this aproper way to define one single cycle list for the use with pgfplots?

Picture

enter image description here

MWE

\documentclass[
a4paper
]{scrartcl}

\usepackage{
amsmath,
tikz,
pgfplots,
pgfplotstable,
}

\usepackage{lmodern}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}

\usepgfplotslibrary{groupplots}

\pgfplotstableread[col sep=comma]{
Process,ValueA,ValueB
1,66,70
2,66,40
3,24,20
4,52,60
5,64,30
6,37,30
}{\tableabcdef}

\pgfplotscreateplotcyclelist{mycolorlisttest}{%
blue!60!black,fill=blue!60!black,every mark/.append style={fill=blue!60!black},mark=*\\%1
red!70!black,fill=red!70!black,every mark/.append style={fill=red!70!black},mark=*\\%2
green!70!black,fill=green!70!black,every mark/.append style={fill=green!70!black},mark=*\\%3
gray,fill=gray,fill=gray,fill=gray,every mark/.append style={fill=gray},mark=*\\%4
orange,fill=orange,every mark/.append style={fill=orange},mark=*\\%5
brown!80!black,fill=brown!80!black,every mark/.append style={fill=brown!80!black},mark=*\\%6
green,fill=green,every mark/.append style={fill=green},mark=*\\%7
violet!80!black,fill=violet!80!black,every mark/.append style={fill=violet!80!black},mark=*\\%8
black,fill=black,every mark/.append style={fill=black},mark=*\\%9
teal,fill=teal,every mark/.append style={fill=teal},mark=*\\%10
magenta!70!black,fill=magenta!70!black,every mark/.append style={fill=magenta!70!black},mark=*\\%11
yellow!90!black,fill=yellow!90!black,every mark/.append style={fill=yellow!90!black},mark=*\\%12
}

\begin{document}
\begin{center}
\begin{tikzpicture}[font=\small]
\begin{axis}[
xlabel={Force in N},
ylabel={Process},
%
xbar,
%
xmin=0,
%
enlarge x limits={rel={0.2}, upper},
%
ytick=data,
nodes near coords,
nodes near coords align={right=3pt},
every node near coord/.append style={fill=white, font=\footnotesize, inner sep=1pt},
%
cycle list name=mycolorlisttest,
no markers
]
\addplot+ table [x=ValueA, y=Process] {\tableabcdef};
\addplot+ table [x=ValueB, y=Process] {\tableabcdef};
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{center}
\end{document}

SOLUTION

\documentclass[
a4paper
]{scrartcl}

\usepackage{
amsmath,
tikz,
pgfplots,
pgfplotstable,
}

\usepackage{lmodern}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}

\usepgfplotslibrary{groupplots}

\pgfplotstableread[col sep=comma]{
Process,ValueA,ValueB
1,66,70
2,66,40
3,24,20
4,52,60
5,64,30
6,37,30
}{\tableabcdef}

\tikzset{
meinemarkfarben/.style={
mark=*,
draw=#1,
fill=#1,
every mark/.append style={fill=#1}}
}

\pgfplotscreateplotcyclelist{aaaaaaa}{%
meinemarkfarben={yellow!60!black}\\%1
meinemarkfarben={red!70!black}\\%2
meinemarkfarben={green!70!black}\\%3
meinemarkfarben={gray}\\%4
meinemarkfarben={orange}\\%5
meinemarkfarben={brown!80!black}\\%6
meinemarkfarben={green}\\%7
meinemarkfarben={violet!80!black}\\%8
meinemarkfarben={black}\\%9
meinemarkfarben={teal}\\%10
meinemarkfarben={magenta!70!black}\\%11
meinemarkfarben={yellow!90!black}\\%12
}

\begin{document}
\begin{center}
\begin{tikzpicture}[font=\small]
\begin{axis}[
xlabel={Force in N},
ylabel={Process},
%
xbar,
%
xmin=0,
%
enlarge x limits={rel={0.2}, upper},
%
ytick=data,
nodes near coords,
nodes near coords align={right=3pt},
every node near coord/.append style={fill=white, font=\footnotesize, inner sep=1pt},
%
cycle list name=aaaaaaa,
no markers
]
\addplot+ table [x=ValueA, y=Process] {\tableabcdef};
\addplot+ table [x=ValueB, y=Process] {\tableabcdef};
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{center}
\end{document}

Picture of Solution

enter image description here

Best Answer

This should be done by wrapping it around a custom style. I am not totally sure what you want?

Do this:

\tikzset{
  my mark set/.style={
    draw=#1,
    fill=#1,
    every mark/.append style={fill=#1}
  }
}

Then you can do:

\pgfplotscreateplotcyclelist{mycolorlisttest}{%
  my mark set=blue!60!black,mark=*\\%1
  my mark set=red!70!black,mark=*\\%2
  ...
}

You can of course utilise the special setting with the args such as:

\tikzset{
  my mark set/.style 2 args={
    mark=#1,
    draw=#2,
    fill=#2,
    every mark/.append style={fill=#2}
  }
}

and then do:

\pgfplotscreateplotcyclelist{mycolorlisttest}{%
  my mark set={*}{blue!60!black}\\%1
  my mark set={*}{red!70!black}\\%2
  ...
}

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] How to create pgfplots cycle list from a table

The reason why Jake's solution doesn't work is that the \listmacro isn't expanded before the pgfplotscreateplotcyclelist macro searches for the \\ separators. Therefore the whole macro is taken as one setting and the included \\ are expanded as part of the setting which causes an error (line breaks in settings don't make much sense).

So in order to make it work you have to manually expand \listmacro first and than feed it to \pgfplotscreateplotcyclelist. There are multiple ways to do this. Here a way which uses eTeX's \unexpanded inside \edef to expand the \listmacro only once, otherwise the \\ are expanded to early and cause also errors. I defined a new macro \pgfplotscreateplotcyclelistfrommacro which expands the second argument and then calls \pgfplotscreateplotcyclelist. Feel free to rename it.

Based on Jake's code:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\usepackage{pgfplotstable}
\usepackage{filecontents}

\newcommand*{\pgfplotscreateplotcyclelistfrommacro}[2]{%
    \begingroup
    % Expands the second argument once. The `\A` is only temporary used
    % and therefore in a group
    \edef\A{\noexpand\pgfplotscreateplotcyclelist{#1}{\unexpanded\expandafter{#2}}}%
    \expandafter
    \endgroup\A
}

\begin{filecontents}{cyclelist.txt}
green
pink
purple
\end{filecontents}
\pgfplotstableread{cyclelist.txt}{\cyclelist}

\begin{document}

\pgfplotstabletypeset[begin table={},end table={},skip coltypes,display columns/0/.style={string type},write to macro=\listmacro,typeset=false]\cyclelist

\begin{tikzpicture}
\pgfplotscreateplotcyclelistfrommacro{newcycle}{\listmacro}
\begin{axis}[cycle list name=newcycle]
\addplot {x^2};
\addplot {x^4};
\addplot {x^6};
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

[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}