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bar3

3-D bar graph

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  • 3-D plot of bars

Syntax

bar3(z)
bar3(y,z)
bar3(___,width)
bar3(___,style)
bar3(___,color)
bar3(ax,___)
b = bar3(___)

Description

example

bar3(z) creates a 3-D bar graph for the elements of z. Each bar corresponds to an element in z.

  • To plot a single series of bars, specify z as a vector. For a vector of length m, the function plots the bars on a y-axis ranging from 1 to m.

  • To plot multiple series of bars, specify z as a matrix with one column for each series. For an m-by-n matrix, the function plots the bars on an x-axis ranging from 1 to n and a y-axis ranging from 1 to m.

example

bar3(y,z) creates a bar graph of the elements in z at the y-values specified in y. If z is a matrix, elements from the same row in z appear at the same location along the y-axis.

example

bar3(___,width) sets the width of the bars along the x- and y-axes and controls the separation of bars within a group. By default, width is 0.8 and the bars have a slight separation. If width is 1, the bars within a group touch one another.

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bar3(___,style) specifies the style of the bars, where style can be 'detached', 'grouped', or 'stacked'. The default mode of display is 'detached'.

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bar3(___,color) displays all bars using the color specified by color. For example, use 'r' to specify all red bars.

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bar3(ax,___) plots into the axes specified by ax instead of into the current axes (gca). The option ax can precede any of the input argument combinations in the previous syntaxes.

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b = bar3(___) returns one or more Surface objects. If z is a vector, then bar3 creates one Surface object. If z is a matrix, then bar3 returns a Surface object for each series. Use b to set properties of the bars after displaying the bar graph. For a list of properties, see Surface Properties.

Examples

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Open Live Script

Specify z as a vector of five values. Plot these values as a series of 3-D bars, with the height of each bar corresponding to a value in z and its y-axis location corresponding to the index of that value.

z = [50 40 30 20 10];
bar3(z);

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains an object of type surface.

Open Live Script

Specify z as a matrix. Create a 3-D bar graph of z with each series corresponding to a column in z.

z = [1 4 7; 2 5 8; 3 6 9; 4 7 10];
bar3(z)

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains 3 objects of type surface.

Open Live Script

Specify y as a vector of y-axis locations for the bars in z. Plot the bars at the specified y-axis locations.

y = [1950 1960 1970 1980 1990];
z = [16 8 4 2 1];
bar3(y,z)

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains an object of type surface.

Open Live Script

Specify z as a matrix with three series. Plot z with the data for each row grouped together by using the 'grouped' style. To eliminate space between bars of the same group, set width to 1.

z = [70 50 33 10; 75 55 35 15; 80 60 40 20];
bar3(z,1,'grouped')

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains 4 objects of type surface.

Open Live Script

Create a set of y-coordinates ranging from 0 to π. Plot sine functions of the y-values as a 3-D bar graph. Use the color specification 'r' to make the bars red.

y = 0:pi/16:pi;
z = [sin(y')/4 sin(y')/2 sin(y')];
bar3(y,z,1,'r')

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains 3 objects of type surface.

Open Live Script

Plot data matrix z with the bar style 'stacked' and bar width 0.5. Store the returned Surface objects as b. In this case, b has 4 elements, with one for each column in z.

Note that bar3 colors each series based on the default colormap.

z = [19 30 21 30; 40 16 32 12];
b = bar3(z,0.5,'stacked');

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains 4 objects of type surface.

Customize the color of each series by setting the FaceColor of the corresponding object in b.

b(1).FaceColor = 'k';
b(2).FaceColor = 'white';
b(3).FaceColor = [.5 .7 .8];
b(4).FaceColor = [.9 .7 .8];

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains 4 objects of type surface.

Open Live Script

Since R2019b

You can display a tiling of plots using the tiledlayout and nexttile functions. Call the tiledlayout function to create a 1-by-2 tiled chart layout. Call the nexttile function to create the axes objects ax1 and ax2. Create separate line plots in the axes by specifying the axes object as the first argument to bar3.

Display a stacked 3-D bar graph in the left axes. In the right axes, display a grouped bar graph of the same data.

tiledlayout(1,2)
z = [64 56 48; 49 42 35; 36 30 24];

% Left bar graph
ax1 = nexttile;
bar3(ax1,z,0.5,'stacked')

% Right bar graph
ax2 = nexttile;
bar3(ax2,z,1,'grouped')

Figure contains 2 axes objects. Axes object 1 contains 3 objects of type surface. Axes object 2 contains 3 objects of type surface.

Input Arguments

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z-coordinates, specified as a vector or matrix. The dimensions of z determine how the function displays your data. This table describes the most common situations.

PresentationHow to Specify Y and ZExampleResult
Display one series of bars.

  • Specify y and z as vectors that are the same length. The values in y must be unique, but the values in z do not need to be unique.

  • Alternatively, specify just the z values.

Define vectors y and z, then create a 3-D bar chart. 

y = [1 2 3 4];
z = [10 20 30 40];
bar3(y,z)

Alternatively, specify just the z values.

bar3(z)

Plot with four 3-D bars in a line

Display multiple series of bars stacked along the x-axis.

  • Specify y as a vector and z as a matrix. The number of elements in y must match the number of rows in z.

  • Alternatively, specify just the z matrix.

Define vector y and matrix z, then create a 3-D bar chart with three series of bars.

y = [1 2 3 4];
z = [1 5 9;
     2 6 10; 
     3 7 11;
     4 8 12];
bar3(y,z)

Alternatively, specify just the z values.

bar3(z)

Plot with three sets of four 3-D bars

Data Types: single | double | int8 | int16 | int32 | int64 | uint8 | uint16 | uint32 | uint64 | duration

y-coordinates, specified as a vector. The values of y do not need to be in order, but the size of y depends on the size of z and how you want to display your data. This table describes the most common situations.

PresentationHow to Specify Y and ZExampleResult
Display one series of bars.

  • Specify y and z as vectors that are the same length. The values in y must be unique, but the values in z do not need to be unique.

  • Alternatively, specify just the z values.

Define vectors y and z, then create a 3-D bar chart. 

y = [1 2 3 4];
z = [10 20 30 40];
bar3(y,z)

Alternatively, specify just the z values.

bar3(z)

Plot with four 3-D bars in a line

Display multiple series of bars stacked along the x-axis.

  • Specify y as a vector and z as a matrix. The number of elements in y must match the number of rows in z.

  • Alternatively, specify just the z matrix.

Define vector y and matrix z, then create a 3-D bar chart with three series of bars.

y = [1 2 3 4];
z = [1 5 9;
     2 6 10; 
     3 7 11;
     4 8 12];
bar3(y,z)

Alternatively, specify just the z values.

bar3(z)

Plot with three sets of four 3-D bars

Data Types: single | double | int8 | int16 | int32 | int64 | uint8 | uint16 | uint32 | uint64 | categorical | datetime | duration

Bar width, specified as a scalar representing a fraction of the total space available for each bar. The default of 0.8 means the bar width is 80% of the space from the previous bar to the next bar, with 10% of that space on each side. If the width is 1, then the bars within a group touch one another.

Example: bar3([1 2 3],0.5) creates bars that use 50% of the available space.

Data Types: single | double | int8 | int16 | int32 | int64 | uint8 | uint16 | uint32 | uint64

Group style, specified as 'detached', 'grouped', or 'stacked'. The group style determines how multiple series of bars display with respect to one another. If z is a vector, style does not affect graph appearance.

This table shows the result of each group style option.

Group StyleResultExample

'detached'

Display each bar at its corresponding x and y value location.

3-D bars evenly spaced on x,y plane

'grouped'

Display each group as adjacent bars that are centered around their corresponding y value.

3-D bars spaced into three distinct groups

'stacked'

Display each group as one multicolored bar. The length of a bar is the sum of the elements in the group.

3-D bars with horizontal colored bands

Bar color, specified as one of the options in this table.

Color NameShort NameAppearance
'red''r'

Sample of the color red

'green''g'

Sample of the color green

'blue''b'

Sample of the color blue

'cyan' 'c'

Sample of the color cyan

'magenta''m'

Sample of the color magenta

'yellow''y'

Sample of the color yellow

'black''k'

Sample of the color black

'white''w'

Sample of the color white

Axes object. If you do not specify an axes, then bar3 uses the current axes for the bar graph.

Output Arguments

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Displayed bars, returned as a vector of Surface objects. Use the elements in b to access and modify properties of a specific series of bars after it has been created. The number of Surface objects returned depends on the size of z. If z is a vector, then b is one Surface object. If z is a matrix, then b is a vector containing a Surface object for each column in z.

More About

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Series of Bars

A series of bars consists of all the bars that correspond to a specific column in z. The bar3 function displays each series at a different location along the x-axis. By default, each series is a different color.

In the following image, the first series is highlighted.

3-D bar graph with all bars at x=1 colored yellow

Group of Bars

A group consists of all the bars at a particular y location.

In the following image, the third group is highlighted.

3-D bar graph with all bars at y=3 colored yellow

Tips

  • The plotted bars can be modified by altering the properties of the returned Surface objects. For a list of Surface properties, see Surface Properties.

Extended Capabilities

Version History

Introduced before R2006a

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See Also

Functions

Properties

Topics