MATLAB Function Reference

errorbar - Plot error bars along curve

GUI Alternatives

To graph selected variables, use the Plot Selector in the Workspace Browser, or use the Figure Palette Plot Catalog. Manipulate graphs in plot edit mode with the Property Editor. For details, see Plotting Tools — Interactive Plotting in the MATLAB Graphics documentation and Creating Graphics from the Workspace Browser in the MATLAB Desktop Tools documentation.

Syntax

errorbar(Y,E) errorbar(X,Y,E) errorbar(X,Y,L,U) errorbar(...,LineSpec) h = errorbar(...) hlines = errorbar('v6',...)

Description

Error bars show the confidence level of data or the deviation along a curve.

errorbar(Y,E) plots Y and draws an error bar at each element of Y. The error bar is a distance of E(i) above and below the curve so that each bar is symmetric and 2*E(i) long.

errorbar(X,Y,E) plots Y versus X with symmetric error bars 2*E(i) long. X, Y, E must be the same size. When they are vectors, each error bar is a distance of E(i) above and below the point defined by (X(i),Y(i)). When they are matrices, each error bar is a distance of E(i,j) above and below the point defined by (X(i,j),Y(i,j)).

errorbar(X,Y,L,U) plots X versus Y with error bars L(i)+U(i) long specifying the lower and upper error bars. X, Y, L, and U must be the same size. When they are vectors, each error bar is a distance of L(i) below and U(i) above the point defined by (X(i),Y(i)). When they are matrices, each error bar is a distance of L(i,j) below and U(i,j) above the point defined by (X(i,j),Y(i,j)).

errorbar(...,LineSpec) uses the color and linestyle specified by the string 'LineSpec'. The color is applied to the data line and error bars. The linestyle and marker are applied to the data line only. See plot for examples of styles.

h = errorbar(...) returns handles to the errorbarseries objects created. errorbar creates one object for vector input arguments and one object per column for matrix input arguments. See errorbarseries properties for more information.

Backward-Compatible Version

hlines = errorbar('v6',...) returns the handles of line objects instead of errorbarseries objects for compatibility with MATLAB 6.5 and earlier.

Note The v6 option enables users of Version 7.x of MATLAB to create FIG-files that previous versions can open. It is obsolete and will be removed in a future version of MATLAB.

See Plot Objects and Backward Compatibility for more information.

Remarks

When the arguments are all matrices, errorbar draws one line per matrix column. If X and Y are vectors, they specify one curve.

Examples

Draw symmetric error bars that are two standard deviation units in length.

X = 0:pi/10:pi;
Y = sin(X);
E = std(Y)*ones(size(X));
errorbar(X,Y,E)