MATLAB Central Newsreader - Inverting a bar chart

Inverting a bar chart

Ryan Utz — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:17:11 -0400

Hello all,

I need to make a simple (i.e. bar(x,y)) bar chart where the y-axis is inverted, in other words, bars go down instead of up (though the values are positive), so that the graph looks like columns hanging from the ceiling. Is there any way to tell Matlab to do this? Multiplying all of my y-axis values by -1 does the trick but then the y-axis is incorrectly labeled (i.e. with negative values).

Thanks for any/all help,
Ryan

Re: Inverting a bar chart

Nathan — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:24:11 -0400

On Oct 28, 11:17 am, "Ryan Utz" <r...@al.umces.edu> wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I need to make a simple (i.e. bar(x,y)) bar chart where the y-axis is inverted, in other words, bars go down instead of up (though the values are positive), so that the graph looks like columns hanging from the ceiling. Is there any way to tell Matlab to do this? Multiplying all of my y-axis values by -1 does the trick but then the y-axis is incorrectly labeled (i.e. with negative values).
>
> Thanks for any/all help,
> Ryan

How about you do as you did (multiply your data set by -1), and then
change the ticklabels accordingly?
Ex:
bar(-1*(1:10))
set(gca,'yticklabel',num2str(-1*str2num(get(gca,'yticklabel'))))

-Nathan

Re: Inverting a bar chart

the cyclist — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:25:18 -0400

"Ryan Utz" <rutz@al.umces.edu> wrote in message <hca1r7$ove$1@fred.mathworks.com>...
> Hello all,
>
> I need to make a simple (i.e. bar(x,y)) bar chart where the y-axis is inverted, in other words, bars go down instead of up (though the values are positive), so that the graph looks like columns hanging from the ceiling. Is there any way to tell Matlab to do this? Multiplying all of my y-axis values by -1 does the trick but then the y-axis is incorrectly labeled (i.e. with negative values).
>
> Thanks for any/all help,
> Ryan

Not sure if this is the best way, but one way is

>> set(gca,'View',[0 -90])

Normally the View property is [0 90]

Re: Inverting a bar chart

dpb — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:20:16 -0400

Ryan Utz wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I need to make a simple (i.e. bar(x,y)) bar chart where the y-axis is
> inverted, in other words, bars go down instead of up (though the
> values are positive), so that the graph looks like columns hanging
> from the ceiling. Is there any way to tell Matlab to do this?
> Multiplying all of my y-axis values by -1 does the trick but then the
> y-axis is incorrectly labeled (i.e. with negative values).

Not sure about being able to orient that way except as you did but you
can always work around the negative y-axis labels by writing them
explicitly as text.

--

Re: Inverting a bar chart

Richard Quist — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:22:43 -0400

Ryan Utz wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I need to make a simple (i.e. bar(x,y)) bar chart where the y-axis is inverted, in other words, bars go down instead of up (though the values are positive), so that the graph looks like columns hanging from the ceiling. Is there any way to tell Matlab to do this? Multiplying all of my y-axis values by -1 does the trick but then the y-axis is incorrectly labeled (i.e. with negative values).
>
> Thanks for any/all help,
> Ryan

Assuming gca (the current axes) is the axes containing the bar plot:
set(gca, 'ydir', 'reverse');

--

Richard Quist
Software Developer
The MathWorks, Inc.

Re: Inverting a bar chart

Ryan Utz — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:36:19 -0400

Thanks! all of these work, but those suggested by Richard and dpb are the shortest