legend in subplot

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Hassan
Hassan on 5 May 2011
Commented: Simon Mwakitabu on 16 Jan 2024
I am plotting my data using subplot. since the legend is a bit long, I want to put a horzontal legend in top of each two sub plots.I can create a legend for each subplot but don't know how to create one at the top of each two plots. I apperciate your help.
x=1:80;
y=rand(15,80);
j=1;
legend={'LC1','LC2','LC3','LC4','LC5','LC6','LC7'};
for ii=1:4
for i=1:4
subplot(2,2,i)
hold on;
row = 0;
row = row+1;
plot(x(j:j+4),y(row,j:j+4))
end
j=j+5;
end

Accepted Answer

Hassan
Hassan on 6 May 2011
I found another way. First I created a subplot with a legend, then placed the legend on the appropriate place on the plot, I created a M-code from the plot and got the position of the legend, then used the position for all subplots. . . .
end
leg1=legend(legend);
set(leg1,'Position',[p1 p2 p3 p4]);
j=j+5;
end
  2 Comments
Dan Po
Dan Po on 30 Sep 2016
Edited: Dan Po on 30 Sep 2016
subplot(121);
peaks
legend('peaks');
subplot(122);
plot(1:10);
legend('1:10')
Simon Mwakitabu
Simon Mwakitabu on 16 Jan 2024
This results to individual legend on each subplot. Not a common one on top of the figure including all plots.
New versions of Matlab since 2019 has tiled_layout with incredible features.

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More Answers (2)

Adam Danz
Adam Danz on 29 Sep 2020
Update
Since this thread continues to get 500+ views per month 9 years later, here's an updated solution for Matlab r2020b or later.
Using TiledLayout, legends can be positioned relative to figure edges and can contain graphics objects from different subplots or tiles.
Examples:

Laura Proctor
Laura Proctor on 5 May 2011
You cannot have a legend that pulls data from more than one subplot. However, you can plot all the data in one subplot, then set the visibility to off and create a legend that will capture everything. Here's an example:
figure
subplot(211)
plot(1:10)
hold on
hi = plot(sin(1:10),'mx-');
legend('one','two','Location','NorthOutside')
set(hi,'Visible','Off')
subplot(212)
plot(sin(1:10),'mx-');
  6 Comments
Johanna
Johanna on 6 Sep 2023
Edited: Adam Danz on 6 Sep 2023
If I use the solution proposed by Laura Proctor, the word "two" in the legend is somewhat transparent even if I try to force it to be black. Any ideas?
figure
subplot(211)
plot(1:10)
hold on
hi = plot(sin(1:10),'mx-');
h_legend= legend('one','two','Location','NorthOutside')
h_legend =
Legend (one, two) with properties: String: {'one' 'two'} Location: 'northoutside' Orientation: 'vertical' FontSize: 7.2000 Position: [0.4556 0.8493 0.1235 0.0704] Units: 'normalized' Show all properties
set(h_legend,'TextColor','k')
set(hi,'Visible','Off')
subplot(212)
plot(sin(1:10),'mx-');
Adam Danz
Adam Danz on 6 Sep 2023
It's because of this line
set(hi,'Visible','Off')
You are setting the 2nd line in the first axes to Visible=off so it is not displayed. Therefore, it's grayed out in the legend.
Instead, use object handles to specify what should go in the legend.

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