MATLAB Function Reference

bar, barh

Bar chart

Syntax

• bar(Y)
  bar(x,Y)
  bar(...,width)
  bar(...,'style')
  bar(...,LineSpec)
  h = bar(...)
  
  barh(...)
  h = barh(...)
  

Description

A bar chart displays the values in a vector or matrix as horizontal or vertical bars.

bar(Y) draws one bar for each element in Y. If Y is a matrix, bar groups the bars produced by the elements in each row. The x-axis scale ranges from 1 to length(Y) when Y is a vector, and 1 to size(Y,1), which is the number of rows, when Y is a matrix.

bar(x,Y) draws a bar for each element in Y at locations specified in x, where x is a monotonically increasing vector defining the x-axis intervals for the vertical bars. If Y is a matrix, bar clusters the elements in the same row in Y at locations corresponding to an element in x.

bar(...,width) sets the relative bar width and controls the separation of bars within a group. The default width is 0.8, so if you do not specify x, the bars within a group have a slight separation. If width is 1, the bars within a group touch one another.

bar(...,'style') specifies the style of the bars. 'style' is 'grouped' or 'stacked'. 'group' is the default mode of display.

• 'grouped' displays n groups of m vertical bars, where n is the number of rows and m is the number of columns in Y. The group contains one bar per column in Y.
• 'stacked' displays one bar for each row in Y. The bar height is the sum of the elements in the row. Each bar is multi-colored, with colors corresponding to distinct elements and showing the relative contribution each row element makes to the total sum.

bar(...,LineSpec) displays all bars using the color specified by LineSpec.

h = bar(...) returns a vector of handles to patch graphics objects. bar creates one patch graphics object per column in Y.

barh(...), and h = barh(...) create horizontal bars. Y determines the bar length. The vector x is a monotonic vector defining the y-axis intervals for horizontal bars.

Examples

Plot a bell shaped curve:

• x = -2.9:0.2:2.9;
  bar(x,exp(-x.*x))
  colormap hsv
  
  
  
  

Create four subplots showing the effects of various bar arguments:

• Y = round(rand(5,3)*10);
  subplot(2,2,1)
  bar(Y,'group')
  title 'Group'
  

• subplot(2,2,2) 
  bar(Y,'stack')
  title 'Stack'
  

• subplot(2,2,3)
  barh(Y,'stack')
  title 'Stack'
  

• subplot(2,2,4)
  bar(Y,1.5)
  title 'Width = 1.5'
  

See Also

bar3, ColorSpec, patch, stairs, hist

Area, Bar, and Pie Plots for related functions

Bar and Area Graphs for more examples

balance

bar3, bar3h