polarregion

Create a polar plot. Then add a polar rectangle between the angles 0 and pi/2 and the radii 0.5 and 0.8.

% Create polar plot
theta = 0:0.01:2*pi;
rho = 2*sin(2*theta).*cos(2*theta);
polarplot(theta,rho,LineWidth=1.5)

% Create polar rectangle
thetas = [0 pi/2];
radii = [0.5 0.8];
polarregion(thetas,radii)

Change the theta-axis units to radians by setting the ThetaAxisUnits property.

pax = gca;
pax.ThetaAxisUnits = "radians";

Create three filled polar rectangles by specifying the bounding angles and radii as 2-by-3 matrices. The columns of the matrices correspond to the different rectangles.

thetas = [pi/6 4*pi/6 pi; 2*pi/6 5*pi/6 2*pi];
radii = [0.5 0.5 0.6; 0.6 0.6 0.7];
polarregion(thetas,radii)

You can specify PolarRegion properties, such as face color and boundary line width and color, by specifying one or more name-value arguments when you call polarregion. Alternatively, you can set properties of the PolarRegion object after creating it.

For example, create two green filled rectangles: one in the first (upper-right) quadrant and the other in the third (lower-left) quadrant. Specify an output argument to store the PolarRegion objects so that you can modify them later.

thetas = [0 pi; pi/2 3*pi/2];
radii = [0.5 0.8];
pr = polarregion(thetas,radii,FaceColor="g");

Change the color of the rectangle in the third quadrant to a shade of purple by specifying the FaceColor property as a hexadecimal color code. Then display thick boundary lines around the rectangle in the first quadrant by setting the EdgeColor and LineWidth properties:

% Set color of rectangle in third quadrant
pr(2).FaceColor = "#5500FF";

% Set boundary color and line thickness in first quadrant
pr(1).EdgeColor = "b";
pr(1).LineWidth = 1.5;

Plot a blue rose and a red rose.

theta = linspace(0,2*pi,200);
rho1 = 2*cos(3*theta);
rho2 = 2*cos(3*theta+pi);

% Blue rose
rose1 = polarplot(theta,rho1,LineWidth=1.5);
hold on

% Red rose
rose2 = polarplot(theta,rho2,LineWidth=1.5);

Create polar rectangles that highlight the tip of a petal in each rose.

radii = [1.5 2];
thetas1 = [7*pi/6 9*pi/6];
pr1 = polarregion(thetas1,radii);

thetas2 = [pi/6 3*pi/6];
pr2 = polarregion(thetas2,radii);

Match the color of each polar rectangle to the corresponding rose by setting the SeriesIndex property of the rectangle to the SeriesIndex property of the rose.

pr1.SeriesIndex = rose1.SeriesIndex;
pr2.SeriesIndex = rose2.SeriesIndex;

To move a polar rectangle on top of a plot, set the Layer property of the PolarRegion object to "top". For example, plot a polar rose and add a polar rectangle. When you create the rectangle, specify a custom face color and a transparency value so that you can see that the rose is on top of the rectangle.

% Plot polar rose
t = 0:0.01:2*pi;
rho = sin(2*t).*cos(2*t);
polarplot(t,rho,LineWidth=1.5)

% Add polar rectangle
thetas = [0 pi];
radii = [0.2 0.3];
pr = polarregion(thetas,radii,FaceColor=[0.8 0.8 0.8],FaceAlpha=0.7);

Move the rectangle on top of the rose by setting the Layer property to "top".

pr.Layer = "top";

To create filled polar rectangles in different polar axes within the same figure, create a tiled chart layout. In this case, create two axes that each contain a polar rectangle.

Use the tiledlayout function to create a 1-by-2 tiled chart layout t. Use the polaraxes function to create each PolarAxes object. By default, both objects occupy the first tile. Move the second PolarAxes object to the second tile by setting the Layout.Tile property.

t = tiledlayout(1,2);
pax1 = polaraxes(t);
pax2 = polaraxes(t);
pax2.Layout.Tile = 2;

Create a red polar rectangle in the first polar axes, and create a green rectangle in the second polar axes. Specify the PolarAxes object that you want to plot into as the first argument when you call polarregion.

thetas = [0 pi];
radii = [0.2 0.6];
polarregion(pax1,thetas,radii,FaceColor="r")
polarregion(pax2,thetas,radii,FaceColor="g")