Scatter chart appearance and behavior (2024)

Table of Contents

Scatter chart appearance and behavior

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Scatter properties control the appearance and behavior of Scatter object. By changing property values, you can modify certain aspects of the scatter chart. Use dot notation to query and set properties.

s = scatter(1:10,1:10);m = s.Marker;s.Marker = '*';

Markers

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`Marker` — Marker symbol
`'o'` (default) | `'+'` | `'*'` | `'.'` | `'x'` | ...

Marker symbol, specified as one of the options listed in this table:

Marker	Description	Resulting Marker
`"o"`	Circle
`"+"`	Plus sign
`"*"`	Asterisk
`"."`	Point
`"x"`	Cross
`"_"`	Horizontal line
`"\|"`	Vertical line
`"square"`	Square
`"diamond"`	Diamond
`"^"`	Upward-pointing triangle
`"v"`	Downward-pointing triangle
`">"`	Right-pointing triangle
`"<"`	Left-pointing triangle
`"pentagram"`	Pentagram
`"hexagram"`	Hexagram
`"none"`	No markers	Not applicable

`MarkerEdgeAlpha` — Marker edge transparency
`1` (default) | scalar in range `[0,1]` | `'flat'`

Marker edge transparency, specified as a scalar in the range [0,1] or 'flat'. A value of 1 is opaque and 0 is completely transparent. Values between 0 and 1 are semitransparent.

To set the edge transparency to a different value for each point in the plot, set the AlphaData property to a vector the same size as the XData property, and set the MarkerEdgeAlpha property to 'flat'.

`MarkerFaceAlpha` — Marker face transparency
`1` (default) | scalar in range `[0,1]` | `'flat'`

Marker face transparency, specified as a scalar in the range [0,1] or 'flat'. A value of 1 is opaque and 0 is completely transparent. Values between 0 and 1 are semitransparent.

To set the marker face transparency to a different value for each point in the plot, set the AlphaData property to a vector the same size as the XData property, and set the MarkerFaceAlpha property to 'flat'.

`AlphaData` — Marker face transparency
`1` (default) | array the same size as `XData`

Transparency data for each plotted point, specified as an array the same size as the XData property. After specifying the values, set the MarkerFaceAlpha and MarkerEdgeAlpha properties to control the type of transparency. If the MarkerFaceAlpha and MarkerEdgeAlpha properties are both set to scalar values, then the Scatter object does not use the AlphaData values.

The AlphaDataMapping property determines how the Scatter object interprets the AlphaData property values.

`AlphaDataMode` — Control how `AlphaData` is set
`'auto'` | `'manual'`

Control how the AlphaData property is set, specified as one of these values:

'auto' — MATLAB controls the value of the AlphaData property. The value can be:
- The default value of the AlphaData property.
- The values in a table variable. The SourceTable property specifies the table, and the AlphaVariable property specifies the variable. If either the SourceTable or AlphaVariable properties are empty, the default AlphaData value is used.
'manual' — The AlphaData property is set directly and does not update automatically.

Color and Size Data

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`CData` — Marker colors
`[]` (default) | RGB triplet | matrix of RGB triplets | vector

Marker colors, specified as one of these values:

RGB triplet — Use the same color for all the markers in the plot. An RGB triplet is a three-element row vector whose elements specify the intensities of the red, green, and blue components of the color. The intensities must be in the range [0,1], for example, [0.5 0.6 0.7].
Three-column matrix of RGB triplets — Use a different color for each marker in the plot. Each row of the matrix defines one color. The number of rows must equal the number of markers.
Vector — Use a different color for each marker in the plot. Specify CData as a vector the same length as XData. Linearly map the values in the vector to the colors in the current colormap.

Example: [1 0 0; 0 1 0; 0 0 1]

`CDataMode` — Control how `CData` is set
`'auto'` (default) | `'manual'`

Control how the CData property is set, specified as one of these values:

'auto' — MATLAB controls the value of the CData property. The value can be:
- One of the colors from the ColorOrder property of the axes. MATLAB uses the SeriesIndex property of the Scatter object and the ColorOrder property of the axes to select a color. This is the default behavior.
- The values in a table variable. The SourceTable property specifies the table, and the ColorVariable property specifies the variable. If either of these properties are empty, then the color data comes from the ColorOrder property of the axes.
'manual' — You control the value of the CData property manually, either by specifying a color when you call a plotting function or by setting the CData property on the Scatter object after plotting.

`CDataSource` — Variable linked to `CData`
`''` | character vector or string containing MATLAB workspace variable

Variable linked to CData, specified as a character vector or string containing a MATLAB workspace variable. MATLAB evaluates the variable in the base workspace to generate the CData.

By default, there is no linked variable so the value is an empty character vector. If you link a variable, then MATLAB does not update the CData values immediately. To force an update of the data values, use the refreshdata function.

Note

If you change one data source property to a variable that contains data of a different dimension, you might cause the function to generate a warning and not render the graph until you have changed all data source properties to appropriate values.

`SeriesIndex` — Series index
positive whole number | `"none"`

Series index, specified as a positive whole number or "none". This property is useful for reassigning the marker colors of Scatter objects so that they match the colors of other objects. By default, the SeriesIndex property is a number that corresponds to the object's order of creation, starting at 1.

MATLAB uses the number to calculate indices for assigning colors when you call plotting functions. The indices refer to the rows of the arrays stored in the ColorOrder property of the axes. The marker colors change when you change the Scatter object's SeriesIndex value, or when you change ColorOrder property of the axes.

A SeriesIndex value of "none" corresponds to a neutral color that does not participate in the indexing scheme. (since R2023b)

How Manual Color Assignment Overrides `SeriesIndex` Behavior

To manually control the fill color of the markers, use either of these approaches:

One color for all markers — Set the MarkerFaceColor property to a color name, RGB triplet, or a hexadecimal color code.
Different colors for all the markers — Set the MarkerFaceColor property to "flat". Then set the CData property to an RGB triplet, matrix of RGB triplets, or a vector of colormap indices.

Manually controlling the edge colors of the markers works the same way, except that you set MarkerEdgeColor property to a color value or "flat".

When you manually set the color of an object, MATLAB disables automatic color selection for that object and allows your color to persist, regardless of the value of the SeriesIndex property. The CDataMode property indicates whether the CData colors have been set manually (by you) or automatically. A value of "manual" indicates manual selection, and a value of "auto" indicates automatic selection.

Automatic color selection is disabled when you perform either of these actions:

Set the MarkerFaceColor or MarkerEdgeColor to a value other than "flat".
Set the CData to a color value manually.

To enable automatic selection again, set the MarkerFaceColor, MarkerEdgeColor, or both properties to "flat". Set the CDataMode property to "auto", and set the SeriesIndex property to a positive whole number.

In some cases, MATLAB sets the SeriesIndex value to 0, which also disables automatic color selection.

`SizeData` — Marker sizes
`[]` (default) | scalar | vector

Marker sizes, specified in one of these forms:

Scalar — Use the same size for all of the markers.
Vector — Use a different size for each marker. Specify SizeData as a vector the same length as XData.

Specify the values in point units, where one point equals 1/72 inch. To specify a marker that has an area of one square inch, use a value of 72^2.

Example: 50

`SizeDataMode` — Control how `SizeData` is set
`'auto'` | `'manual'`

Control how the SizeData property is set, specified as one of these values:

'auto' — MATLAB controls the value of the SizeData property. The value can be:
- The default value of the SizeData property.
- The values in a table variable. The SourceTable property specifies the table, and the SizeVariable property specifies the variable. If either the SourceTable or SizeVariable properties are empty, the default SizeData value is used.
'manual' — You set the SizeData property directly; it does not change.

`SizeDataSource` — Variable linked to `SizeData`
`''` | character vector or string containing MATLAB workspace variable

Variable linked to SizeData, specified as a character vector or string containing a MATLAB workspace variable. MATLAB evaluates the variable in the base workspace to generate the SizeData.

By default, there is no linked variable so the value is an empty character vector. If you link a variable, then MATLAB does not update the SizeData values. To force an update of the data values, use the refreshdata function.

Note

Cartesian Coordinate Data

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`XData` — x values
`[]` (default) | scalar | vector

x values, specified as a scalar or a vector. The scatter plot displays an individual marker for each value in XData.

The input argument x to the plotting function sets the x values. XData and YData must have equal lengths.

Example: [1 2 4 2 6]

`XDataMode` — Control how `XData` is set
`'auto'` | `'manual'`

Control how the XData property is set, specified as one of these values:

'auto' — The XData property updates automatically based on the SourceTable and XVariable properties. This is the case when you pass a table to any of the Cartesian scatter plotting functions (such as scatter or scatter3).
'manual' — The XData property is set directly and does not update automatically. This is the case when you pass coordinate values as vectors or matrices to any of the Cartesian scatter plotting functions.

`YData` — y values
`[]` (default) | scalar | vector

y values, specified as a scalar or a vector. The scatter plot displays an individual marker for each value in YData.

The input argument y to the plotting function sets the y values. XData and YData must have equal lengths.

Example: [1 3 3 4 6]

`YDataMode` — Control how `YData` is set
`'auto'` | `'manual'`

Control how the YData property is set, specified as one of these values:

'auto' — The YData property updates automatically based on the SourceTable and YVariable properties. This is the case when you pass a table to any of the Cartesian scatter plotting functions (such as scatter or scatter3).
'manual' — The YData property is set directly and does not update automatically. This is the case when you pass coordinate values as vectors or matrices to any of the Cartesian scatter plotting functions.

`ZData` — z values
`[]` (default) | scalar | vector

z values, specified as a scalar or a vector.

For 2-D scatter plots, ZData is empty by default.
For 3-D scatter plots, the input argument z to the plotting function sets the z values. XData, YData, and ZData must have equal lengths.

Example: [1 2 2 1 0]

`ZDataMode` — Control how `ZData` is set
`'auto'` | `'manual'`

Control how the ZData property is set, specified as one of these values:

'auto' — The ZData property updates automatically based on the SourceTable and ZVariable properties. This is the case when you pass a table to any of the Cartesian scatter plotting functions (such as scatter or scatter3).
'manual' — The ZData property is set directly and does not update automatically. This is the case when you pass coordinate values as vectors or matrices to any of the Cartesian scatter plotting functions.

`XJitter` — Jitter type for x-dimension
`'none'` | `'density'` | `'rand'` | `'randn'`

Type of jitter (spacing of points) along the x-dimension, specified as one of the following values:

'none' — Do not jitter the points.
'density' — Jitter the points using the kernel density estimate of y for 2-D charts. If you specify this option in two dimensions for a 3-D chart, the points are jittered based on the kernel density estimate in the third dimension. For example, setting XJitter and YJitter to 'density' uses the kernel density estimate of z.
'rand' — Jitter the points randomly with a uniform distribution.
'randn' — Jitter points randomly with a normal distribution.

`XJitterWidth` — Maximum jitter along x-dimension
nonnegative scalar

Maximum amount of jitter (offset between points) along the x-dimension, specified as a nonnegative scalar value in data units.

For example, to set the jitter width to 90% of the shortest distance between adjacent points, take the minimum distance between unique values of x and scale by 0.9.

XJitterWidth = 0.9 * min(diff(unique(x)));

`YJitter` — Jitter type for y-dimension
`'none'` | `'density'` | `'rand'` | `'randn'`

Type of jitter (spacing of points) along the y-dimension, specified as one of the following values:

'none' — Do not jitter the points.
'density' — Jitter the points using the kernel density estimate of x for 2-D charts. If you specify this option in two dimensions for a 3-D chart, the points are jittered based on the kernel density estimate in the third dimension. For example, setting XJitter and YJitter to 'density' uses the kernel density estimate of z.
'rand' — Jitter the points randomly with a uniform distribution.
'randn' — Jitter points randomly with a normal distribution.

`YJitterWidth` — Maximum jitter along y-dimension
nonnegative scalar

Maximum amount of jitter (offset between points) along the y-dimension, specified as a nonnegative scalar value in data units.

For example, to set the jitter width to 90% of the shortest distance between adjacent points, take the minimum distance between unique values of y and scale by 0.9.

YJitterWidth = 0.9 * min(diff(unique(y)));

`ZJitter` — Jitter type for z-dimension
`'none'` (default) | `'density'` | `'rand'` | `'randn'`

Type of jitter (spacing of points) along the z-dimension, specified as one of the following values:

'none' — Do not jitter the points.
'density' —Jitter the points using the kernel density estimate of y. Or, if you specify this option in one additional dimension, the points are jittered based on the kernel density estimate in the third dimension. For example, setting YJitter and ZJitter to 'density' uses the kernel density estimate of x.
'rand' — Jitter the points randomly with a uniform distribution.
'randn' — Jitter points randomly with a normal distribution.

`ZJitterWidth` — Maximum jitter along z-dimension
nonnegative scalar

Maximum amount of jitter (offset between points) along the z-dimension in data units, specified as a nonnegative scalar value.

For example, to set the jitter width to 90% of the shortest distance between adjacent points, take the minimum distance between unique values of z and scale by 0.9.

ZJitterWidth = 0.9 * min(diff(unique(z)));

Polar Coordinate Data

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`RData` — Radius values
vector

Radius values, specified as a vector. ThetaData and RData must be vectors of equal length.

This property applies only to polar axes.

`RDataMode` — Control how `RData` is set
`'auto'` | `'manual'`

Control how the RData property is set, specified as one of these values:

'auto' — The RData property updates automatically based on the SourceTable and RVariable properties. This is the case when you pass a table to the polarscatter or scatter functions.
'manual' — The RData property is set directly and does not update automatically. This is the case when you pass coordinate values as vectors or matrices to the polarscatter or scatter functions.

`RDataSource` — Variable linked to `RData`
`''` (default) | character vector or string containing MATLAB workspace variable name

Variable linked to RData, specified as a character vector or string containing a MATLAB workspace variable name. MATLAB evaluates the variable in the base workspace to generate the RData.

By default, there is no linked variable so the value is an empty character vector, ''. If you link a variable, then MATLAB does not update the RData values immediately. To force an update of the data values, use the refreshdata function.

Note

This property applies only to polar axes.

`ThetaData` — Angle values
vector

`ThetaDataMode` — Control how `ThetaData` is set
`'auto'` | `'manual'`

Control how the ThetaData property is set, specified as one of these values:

'auto' — The ThetaData property updates automatically based on the SourceTable and ThetaVariable properties. This is the case when you pass a table to the polarscatter or scatter functions.
'manual' — The ThetaData property is set directly and does not update automatically. This is the case when you pass coordinate values as vectors or matrices to the polarscatter or scatter functions.

`ThetaDataSource` — Variable linked to `ThetaData`
`''` (default) | character vector or string containing MATLAB workspace variable name

Variable linked to ThetaData, specified as a character vector or string containing a MATLAB workspace variable name. MATLAB evaluates the variable in the base workspace to generate the RData.

By default, there is no linked variable so the value is an empty character vector, ''. If you link a variable, then MATLAB does not update the ThetaData values immediately. To force an update of the data values, use the refreshdata function.

Note

This property applies only to polar axes.

Geographic Coordinate Data

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`LatitudeData` — Latitude values
vector

Latitude values, specified as a vector. LatitudeData and LongitudeData must be vectors of equal length.