[Tex/LaTex] pgfplots: prevent single plot from being listed in legend

legendpgfplotstikz-pgf

In order to fill the area between two complex curves I use tables and the vertcat command (see Fill between two curves in pgfplots.).

Now I don't want the plotted area to appear in my legend, just the two curves. Is there any command to prevent the yellow area plot from being added to my legend? this could be a minimal example:

\documentclass{article} \usepackage{pgfplots} 
\begin{document} \begin{tikzpicture}
  \begin{axis}[area style,axis on top]
    \addplot+[mark=none,fill=yellow,draw=none] {0.1*x^2} \closedcycle;
    \addplot[mark=none,draw=red,line legend] {0.1*x^2};
    \addplot[mark=none,draw=blue,line legend] {0.0*x^2};
    \legend{red curve,blue curve};
    % \legend{\empty,red curve,blue curve};
  \end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture} \end{document}

With this legend{...}-command the last plot is skipped, an additional \empty doesn't help, too.

Sadly, drawing the first to plots together with fill=yellow,draw=red is not an option for me. Does anybody know any inside hacks? As far as I know, there is no command shown in the manual. Thanks in advance.

Best Answer

Adding the option forget plot to the plot you do not want shown does the trick.

\documentclass{article} \usepackage{pgfplots} 
\begin{document} \begin{tikzpicture}
  \begin{axis}[area style,axis on top]
    \addplot+[mark=none,fill=yellow,draw=none,forget plot] {0.1*x^2} \closedcycle;
    \addplot[mark=none,draw=red,line legend] {0.1*x^2};
    \addplot[mark=none,draw=blue,line legend] {0.0*x^2};
    \legend{red curve,blue curve};
  \end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture} \end{document}

forget plot pgfplots


Alternatively, you could use an empty entry in the \legend list for the plot you want to exclude from the legend:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pgfplots} 
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
  \begin{axis}[axis on top]
    \addplot [area style,fill=yellow,draw=none] {0.1*x^2} \closedcycle;
    \addplot [draw=red] {0.1*x^2};
    \addplot [draw=blue] {0.0*x^2};
    \legend{,red curve,blue curve};
  \end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}