Changing ylim properties of multiple plotyy figures

Hello,

I am creating multiple figures using plotyy inside a loop. After creating the figures, I want to change the y-limits of some of the figures manually. Figure properties only lets me change ax(1) properties but not ax(2) so I tried setting properties via command line but to no success.

This is my code for creating figures:

for k=1:30
    figure(k)
[ax, h1, h2]=plotyy(year, precip.(varnames{k}),year,runoff.(varnames{k}));
set(gca,'NextPlot','add');
drawnow
print('-dtiff','-r200',varnames{k});
hold off
end

I then tried changing y-limits of ax(2) using this command:

figure(7),set(ax(2),'ylim',[200 700]);

But receive this error: ??? Error using ==> set Invalid handle object.

A few times matlab did run the command without producing an error but did not actually change the limits. I was wondering if you could show me how to get matlab to remember the axis handles I set when creating each figure so I can use them to change figure properties afterwards? Or another way to change plotyy properties after creating the figures? many thanks!

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

You are overwriting ax each time through your loop, so it no longer refers to figure 7's ax.

findobj(7,'type','axis')

would get you both axis of figure 7; you would have to figure out which is which (perhaps by examining which side the label is set to be drawn on.)

[Anna]

Hi Walter, I tried this (and a few variations of it) but it returns an empty matrix. It does bring up the correct figure but I guess it can't find any axes for it. Do you have any other ideas what I could try? cheers

[Walter Roberson]

Ah, try with

findobj(7,'type','axes')

Answer 2

[Azzi Abdelmalek]

Try

figure(7),
ax=gca,
set(ax(2),'ylim',[200 700]);

[Anna]

I tried this but gca only returns one axis (ax(1)) and when I try setting ylim for ax(2) I get an error message saying ??? Index exceeds matrix dimensions. Do you know how I can get gca to return both ax(1) and ax(2)?

[Walter Roberson]

gca cannot return both ax, as only one axis can be the current axis.

Answer 3

[Nicolò Cogno]

Hi,

I would also suggest trying this:

figure(1), ax=gca;
set(ax.YAxis(1),'Limits',[0 1]);
set(ax.YAxis(2),'Limits',[0 1]);

[Walter Roberson]

Note these did not exist at the time the question was originally asked ;-)