ShadePlotForEmphasis

Plots a shaded bar for emphasis as commonly seen on economic charts.

Description

ShadePlotForEmpahsis
  Plots a shaded bar for emphasis as commonly seen on economic charts.
 
  INPUTS:
   x where the bar is placed. If you want a bar from x=4:8 then
         use [4 8]. If you want x=[4:8,10:20] then use {4:8,10:20}
  colors Use 'y' to make all bars yellow. Use {'y','g','r'} for
         yellow, green and red bars.
  alphas Use 0.5 if you want all bars to be translucent. Use {0,.5,1}
         for transparent, translucet and opaque bars.
 
  USAGE:
  % DEFINE DATA
  P=[ ...
  98 98 94 91 84 83 82 87 88 89 91 91 90 89 89 90 91 91 87 86 87 84 79 80 ...
  85 86 86 85 93 93 93 93 97 97 95 93 93 94 95 96 96 92 89 90 91 91 91 92 ...
  93 95 99 98 99 97 95 95 94 90 92 93 93 95 94 95 93 92 92 92 91 90 89 89 ...
  90 89 90 89 88 84 84 83 84 85 85 84 82 82 82 79 80 79 80 78 78 81 83 82 ...
  81 79 77 77 78 77 78 79 79 81 81 81 78 78 78 78 77 78 79 79 79 79 81 85 ...
  86 86 86 87 85 84 85 86 88 88 90 88 88 87 86 86 85 87 87 87 86 85 84 83 ...
  82 81 81 82 81 80 82 81 79 80 81 80 80 79 85 85 82 83 84 85 86 87 86 86 ...
  85 85 85 83 79 81 83 83 84 82 80 80 80 80 84 81 80 76 71 70 70 69 69 68 ...
  67 68 68 68 67 68 68 70 70 72 72 71 69 68 68 68 67 68 67 66 67 67 67 66 ...
  65 66 65 62 60 60 59 59 59 59 65 66 63 65 68 68 68 68 69 73 74 71 71 69 ...
  71 72 72 76 76 74 77 80 82 80 78 80 80 80 80 81 80 79 77];
  T=today-length(P)+1:today;
  Y={today-[13 74],today-[142 172]};
  G={today-[30 51]};
 
  % PLOT THE DATA
  plot(T,P);
  datetick;
  line(get(gca,'Xlim'),[80 80])
  line(get(gca,'Xlim'),[68 68])%
  title({'ShadePlotForEmphasis','(P<80 yellow, P<68 green)'});
 
  % DRAW SOME YELLOW BARS
  ShadePlotForEmpahsis(Y,'y',0.5);
 
  % DRAW A GREEN BAR
  ShadePlotForEmpahsis(G,'g',0.5);
 
 
  | ## _#__/
  | ## / #
  | ## / #
  | /#\_/ #
  |/ ## #
  |__##_____#_____
 
  IT'S NOT FANCY BUT IT WORKS

• Acknowledgements: This submission has inspired the following:; Shaded time series
• MATLAB release: MATLAB 6.5 (R13)

[Vaishali Dadhe]

 

[Francisco Bido]

Mathworks needs to rapidly implement a more refined version of this popular type of plot. In the mean time, this code is VERY useful. Thanks!!

[David Groppe]

Great function! Thanks for writing it. It would be a bit easier to use though if you corrected the spelling of "emphasis." Currently you spell it "empahsis."
      much appreciated,
            -D