Matplot in R

Matplot in R is most concise way to superimpose the data series. Matplot  plots the columns of a matrix individually as a function of x.

Syntax for Matplot in R:

matplot(x,cbind(y1,y2))

Example of matplot in R

# R matplot

X <- 1:10
Y=X^2
Z=X^2-2*X
matplot(X,cbind(Y,Z),pch=c(16,1),xlab="x",ylab="X^2 and X^2-2*X")
  • X is vector from 1 to 10
  • Y and Z are function of X
  • The command matplot(x,cbind(y,Z)) will produce graph in which has points of the two data series, one is printed in black (col=1) and other is printed in red (col=2).
  • xlab and ylab are x axis labels and y axis labels respectively

Note that matplot automatically sets ylim to include both data series.

So the output will be

matplot in r

Matplot in R with legend:

To identify the series, add a legend with the legend function, which specifies the x and y coordinates of the legend, its text, accompanying symbols or line types etc

Example of matplot in R with legend

# R matplot with legend

X <- 1:10
Y=X^2
Z=X^2-2*X
matplot(X,cbind(Y,Z),pch=c(16,1),xlab="x",ylab="X^2 and X^2-2*X")
legend(1,100,legend=c("y","Z"),pch=c(16,1)) 

use bty=”n” if you don’t want box, where bty stands for “box type”.

So the output will be

matplot in r with legend

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Author

  • Sridhar Venkatachalam

    With close to 10 years on Experience in data science and machine learning Have extensively worked on programming languages like R, Python (Pandas), SAS, Pyspark.

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