Problems on subplotting 3 MATLAB figures

Hi all, I used the following coding to subplot 3 figures. The figures are able to open but the subplot only shows the 1st one. I don't know why the 2nd and 3rd figures can't be shown. Please help to solve it. Thank you! For ref, I'm using R2009b Matlab.

% /// Step #1 and #2
    h1 = openfig(filename1,'reuse'); %// open figure from file
    ax1 = gca; % // get handle to axes of figure

    h2 = openfig(filename2,'reuse'); %// open another figure from file
    ax2 = get(h2,'children'); % // get handle to axes of the other figure

    h3 = openfig(filename3,'reuse'); %// open another figure from file
    ax3 = gca; % // get handle to axes of the other figure

    %// test1.fig and test2.fig are the names of the figure files which you would 
    %// like to copy into multiple subplots

    % /// Step #3
    figure(i); %// create new figure
    s1 = subplot(3,1,1); % // create and get handle to the subplot axes
    s2 = subplot(3,1,2);
    s3 = subplot(3,1,3);

    % /// Step #4
    fig1 = get(ax1,'children');
    fig2 = get(ax2,'children');
    fig3 = get(ax3,'children');

    % /// Step #5
    copyobj(fig1,s1); %// copy children to new parent axes i.e. the subplot axes
    copyobj(fig2,s2);
    copyobj(fig3,s3);
    saveas(gcf,strcat(path,'Subplot\1to3\','AccuRain_1to3_',num2str(Year)))
    close(figure(i))

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

openfig() with 'reuse' brings the given figure to the top, but the top figure is not necessarily the current figure. Even if it does happen to make the figure the current figure, gca does not change just because you change current figures: if you want an axes you need to find it underneath the figure, similar to the way you did for ax2.

      h1 = openfig(filename1,'reuse'); %// open figure from file
      ax1 = findobj(h1,'type','axes');

The code you are using does not account for the possibility of multiple axes being present in a figure. In particular that can happen if you are using R2014a or earlier and you have a legend. In R2014b and later, legends are not implemented as axes.

Axes can have hidden children -- it happens all the time for labels. To handle those, use findall :

ax1ch = findall(ax1, '-depth', 1, '-not', 'type', 'axes');
copyobj(ax1ch, s1);

Putting this together:

filenames = {filename1, filename2, filename3};
fig_ax = [];
for K = 1 : length(filenames)
  fig_h(K) = openfig(filenames{K}, 'reuse');
  fig_ax = [fig_ax; findobj(fig_h(K),'-depth',1,'type','axes')];  %not findall
end
num_subplot = length(fig_ax);
for K = 1 : num_subplot
  axch = findall(fig_ax(K), '-depth', 1, '-not', 'type', 'axes');
  spax = subplot(num_subplot, 1, K);
  copyobj(axch, spax);
  oldprops = get(fig_ax(K));
  props_to_copy = rmfield(oldprops,{'Children','BeingDeleted','CurrentPoint','TightInset','Type','Title','XLabel','YLabel','ZLabel','Position','Parent'});
  set(spax, props_to_copy);
end

This code does not attempt to copy legends, and it does not copy the title or xlabel, ylabel, or zlabel . But it does copy things like tick positions

A better job could be done and more easily if it was permitted to create uipanel to hold the plots instead of requiring that they go to subplots.

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Note for my own future reference:

ch1 = findall(1,'-depth',1,'-not','type','figure','-not','type','uimenu','-not','type','uitoolbar')