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# legend

## Syntax

legend
legend(label1,...,labelN)
legend(labels)
legend(subset,___)
legend(target,___)
legend(___,'Location',lcn)
legend(___,'Orientation',ornt)
legend(___,Name,Value)
legend(bkgd)
lgd = legend(___)
legend(vsbl)
legend('off')

## Description

example

legend creates a legend with descriptive labels for each plotted data series. For the labels, the legend uses the text from the DisplayName properties of the data series. If the DisplayName property is empty, then the legend uses a label of the form 'dataN'. The legend automatically updates when you add or delete data series from the axes. This command creates a legend for the current axes or chart returned by gca. If the current axes are empty, then the legend is empty. If axes do not exist, then this command creates them.

example

legend(label1,...,labelN) sets the legend labels. Specify the labels as a list of character vectors or strings, such as legend('Jan','Feb','Mar').
legend(labels) sets the labels using a cell array of character vectors, a string array, or a character matrix, such as legend({'Jan','Feb','Mar'}).

example

legend(subset,___) only includes items in the legend for the data series listed in subset. Specify subset as a vector of graphics objects. You can specify subset before specifying the labels or with no other input arguments.

example

legend(target,___) uses the axes, polar axes, or chart specified by target instead of the current axes or chart. Specify the target as the first input argument.

example

legend(___,'Location',lcn) sets the legend location. For example, 'Location','northeast' positions the legend in the upper right corner of the axes. Specify the location after other input arguments.

example

legend(___,'Orientation',ornt), where ornt is 'horizontal', displays the legend items side-by-side. The default for ornt is 'vertical', which stacks the items vertically.

example

legend(___,Name,Value) sets legend properties using one or more name-value pair arguments. When setting properties, you must specify the labels using a cell array, such as legend({'A','B'},'FontSize',12). If you do not want to specify labels, then include an empty cell array, such as legend({},'FontSize',12).

example

legend(bkgd), where bkgd is 'boxoff', removes the legend background and outline. The default for bkgd is 'boxon', which displays the legend background and outline.
lgd = legend(___) returns the Legend object. Use lgd to query and set properties of the legend after it is created. For a list of properties, see Legend Properties.
legend(vsbl) controls the visibility of the legend, where vsbl is 'hide', 'show', or 'toggle'.
legend('off') deletes the legend.

## Examples

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Plot two lines and add a legend to the current axes. Specify the legend labels as input arguments to the legend function.

x = linspace(0,pi); y1 = cos(x); plot(x,y1) hold on y2 = cos(2*x); plot(x,y2) legend('cos(x)','cos(2x)')

If you add or delete a data series from the axes, the legend updates accordingly. Control the label for the new data series by setting the DisplayName property as a name-value pair during creation. If you do not specify a label, then the legend uses a label of the form 'dataN'.

Note: If you do not want the legend to automatically update when data series are added to or removed from the axes, then set the AutoUpdate property of the legend to 'off'.

y3 = cos(3*x); plot(x,y3,'DisplayName','cos(3x)') hold off

Delete the legend.

legend('off')

Create a figure with two subplots and return the two Axes objects, ax1 and ax2. Plot random data in each subplot. Add a legend to the upper subplot by specifying ax1 as the first input argument to legend.

y1 = rand(3); ax1 = subplot(2,1,1); plot(y1) y2 = rand(5); ax2 = subplot(2,1,2); plot(y2) legend(ax1,{'Line 1','Line 2','Line 3'})

Plot two lines. Specify the legend labels during the plotting commands by setting the DisplayName property to the desired text. Then, add a legend.

x = linspace(0,pi); y1 = cos(x); plot(x,y1,'DisplayName','cos(x)') hold on y2 = cos(2*x); plot(x,y2,'DisplayName','cos(2x)') hold off legend

Plot four lines. Create a legend in the northwest area of the axes. Specify the number of legend columns using the NumColumns property.

x = linspace(0,pi); y1 = cos(x); plot(x,y1) hold on y2 = cos(2*x); plot(x,y2) y3 = cos(3*x); plot(x,y3) y4 = cos(4*x); plot(x,y4) hold off legend({'cos(x)','cos(2x)','cos(3x)','cos(4x)'},'Location','northwest','NumColumns',2)

By default, the legend orders the items from top to bottom along each column. To order the items from left to right along each row instead, set the Orientation property to 'horizontal'.

If you do not want to include all of the plotted graphics objects in the legend, then you can specify the graphics objects that you want to include.

Plot three lines and return the Line objects created. Create a legend that includes only two of the lines. Specify the first input argument as a vector of the Line objects to include.

x = linspace(0,pi); y1 = cos(x); p1 = plot(x,y1); hold on y2 = cos(2*x); p2 = plot(x,y2); y3 = cos(3*x); p3 = plot(x,y3); hold off legend([p1 p3],{'First','Third'})

Plot two lines and create a legend. Then, add a title to the legend.

x = linspace(0,pi); y1 = cos(x); plot(x,y1) hold on y2 = cos(2*x); plot(x,y2) hold off lgd = legend('cos(x)','cos(2x)'); title(lgd,'My Legend Title')

Plot two lines and create a legend in the lower left corner of the axes. Then, remove the legend background and outline.

x = linspace(0,pi); y1 = cos(x); plot(x,y1) hold on y2 = cos(2*x); plot(x,y2) hold off legend({'cos(x)','cos(2x)'},'Location','southwest') legend('boxoff')

Modify the legend appearance by setting Legend properties. You can set properties when you create the legend using name-value pairs in the legend command. You also can set properties after you create the legend using the Legend object.

Plot four lines of random data. Create legend and assign the Legend object to the variable lgd. Set the FontSize and TextColor properties using name-value pairs. When you specify name-value pair arguments, you must specify the legend labels using a cell array.

rdm = rand(4); plot(rdm) lgd = legend({'Line 1','Line 2','Line 3','Line 4'},'FontSize',12,'TextColor','blue')

lgd = Legend (Line 1, Line 2, Line 3, Line 4) with properties: String: {'Line 1' 'Line 2' 'Line 3' 'Line 4'} Location: 'northeast' Orientation: 'vertical' FontSize: 12 Position: [0.7088 0.7034 0.1778 0.1957] Units: 'normalized' Show all properties 

Modify the legend after it is created by referring to lgd. Set the NumColumns property using the object dot property name notation.

lgd.NumColumns = 2;

## Input Arguments

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Labels, specified as separate arguments of character vectors or strings. To include special characters or Greek letters in the labels, use TeX markup. For a table of options, see the Interpreter property.

Example: legend('Sin Function','Cos Function')

Example: legend("Sin Function","Cos Function")

Example: legend('\gamma','\sigma')

To specify labels that are keywords, such as 'Location' or 'off', use a cell array of character vectors, a string array, or a character array.

Labels, specified as a cell array of character vectors, a string array, or a character array. To include special characters or Greek letters in the labels, use TeX markup. For a table of options, see the Interpreter property.

Example: legend({'Sin Function','Cos Function'})

Example: legend(["Sin Function","Cos Function"])

Example: legend(['Sin Function';'Cos Function'])

Example: legend({'\gamma','\sigma'})

Data series to include in the legend, specified as a vector of graphics objects.

Target for legend, specified as an Axes object, a PolarAxes object, or a graphics object with a LegendVisible property, such as a GeographicBubbleChart object. If you do not specify the target, then the legend function uses the axes or chart returned by the gca command.

Some charts do not support modifying the legend appearance, such as the location, or returning the Legend object as an output argument..

Legend location with respect to the axes, specified as one of the location values listed in this table.

ValueDescription
'north'Inside top of axes
'south'Inside bottom of axes
'east'Inside right of axes
'west'Inside left of axes
'northeast'Inside top-right of axes (default for 2-D axes)
'northwest'Inside top-left of axes
'southeast'Inside bottom-right of axes
'southwest'Inside bottom-left of axes
'northoutside'Above the axes
'southoutside'Below the axes
'eastoutside'To the right of the axes
'westoutside'To the left of the axes
'northeastoutside'Outside top-right corner of the axes (default for 3-D axes)
'northwestoutside'Outside top-left corner of the axes
'southeastoutside'Outside bottom-right corner of the axes
'southwestoutside'Outside bottom-left corner of the axes
'best'Inside axes where least conflict occurs with plot data
'bestoutside'Outside top-right corner of the axes (when the legend has a vertical orientation) or below the axes (when the legend has a horizontal orientation)
'none'Determined by Position property. Use the Position property to display the legend in a custom location.

Example: legend('Location','northeastoutside')

Orientation, specified as one of these values:

• 'vertical' — Stack the legend items vertically.

• 'horizontal' — List the legend items side-by-side.

Example: legend('Orientation','horizontal')

Legend box display, specified as one of these values:

• 'boxon' — Display the legend background and outline.

• 'boxoff' — Do not display the legend background and outline.

Example: legend('boxoff')

Legend visibility, specified as one of these values:

• 'hide' — Hide the legend.

• 'Show' — Show the legend or create a legend if one does not exist.

• 'toggle' — Toggle the legend visibility.

Example: legend('hide')

### Name-Value Pair Arguments

Specify optional comma-separated pairs of Name,Value arguments. Name is the argument name and Value is the corresponding value. Name must appear inside quotes. You can specify several name and value pair arguments in any order as Name1,Value1,...,NameN,ValueN.

Example: legend({'A','B'},'TextColor','blue','FontSize',12) creates a legend with blue, 12-point font.

### Note

The properties listed here are only a subset. For a complete list, see Legend Properties.

Text color, specified as an RGB triplet, a hexadecimal color code, a color name, or a short name. The default color is black with a value of [0 0 0].

For a custom color, specify an RGB triplet or a hexadecimal color code.

• An RGB triplet is a three-element row vector whose elements specify the intensities of the red, green, and blue components of the color. The intensities must be in the range [0,1]; for example, [0.4 0.6 0.7].

• A hexadecimal color code is a character vector or a string scalar that starts with a hash symbol (#) followed by three or six hexadecimal digits, which can range from 0 to F. The values are not case sensitive. Thus, the color codes '#FF8800', '#ff8800', '#F80', and '#f80' are equivalent.

Alternatively, you can specify some common colors by name. This table lists the named color options, the equivalent RGB triplets, and hexadecimal color codes.

Color NameShort NameRGB TripletHexadecimal Color CodeAppearance
'red''r'[1 0 0]'#FF0000'

'green''g'[0 1 0]'#00FF00'

'blue''b'[0 0 1]'#0000FF'

'cyan' 'c'[0 1 1]'#00FFFF'

'magenta''m'[1 0 1]'#FF00FF'

'yellow''y'[1 1 0]'#FFFF00'

'black''k'[0 0 0]'#000000'

'white''w'[1 1 1]'#FFFFFF'

'none'Not applicableNot applicableNot applicableNo color

Here are the RGB triplets and hexadecimal color codes for the default colors MATLAB® uses in many types of plots.

[0 0.4470 0.7410]'#0072BD'

[0.8500 0.3250 0.0980]'#D95319'

[0.9290 0.6940 0.1250]'#EDB120'

[0.4940 0.1840 0.5560]'#7E2F8E'

[0.4660 0.6740 0.1880]'#77AC30'

[0.3010 0.7450 0.9330]'#4DBEEE'

[0.6350 0.0780 0.1840]'#A2142F'

Example: [0 0 1]

Example: 'blue'

Example: '#0000FF'

Font size, specified as a scalar value greater than zero in point units. The default font size depends on the specific operating system and locale.

If you change the axes font size, then MATLAB automatically sets the font size of the colorbar to 90% of the axes font size. If you manually set the font size of the colorbar, then changing the axes font size does not affect the colorbar font.

Number of columns, specified as a positive integer. If there are not enough legend items to fill the specified number of columns, then the number of columns that appear might be fewer.

Use the Orientation property to control whether the legend items appear in order along each column or along each row.

Example: lgd.NumColumns = 3

## Output Arguments

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Legend object. Use lgd to view or modify properties of the legend after it is created.

plot(rand(3)) lgd = legend('line1','line2','line3'); lgd.FontSize = 12; lgd.FontWeight = 'bold';

## Tips

• To label more than 20 objects in the legend, specify a label for each object. Otherwise, legend depicts only the first 20 objects in the graph.

## Algorithms

• Recalling the legend function does not reset legend properties, such as the location or orientation. If a legend exists, then the legend function updates the existing legend. An Axes object can have only one legend.

• The legend reflects the visibility of graphics objects in the axes. Graphics objects that have a Visible property set to 'off' appear as grayed out items in the legend.

## Compatibility Considerations

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Behavior changed in R2018b

Behavior changed in R2017b

Behavior changed in R2017a

Not recommended starting in R2014b