You could avoid creating the histogram using the data by specifying 'BinCounts' and 'BinEdges'. If you do this, there won't be a way to retrieve the original data from the histogram the way you could if you created it by passing the unbinned data into the function, nor would you be able to manipulate it using functions like morebins or fewerbins or by manually changing some of the bin related properties.
Create a histogram from data
cd(tempdir)
x = randn(10^7,1);
f = figure;
h = histogram(x, 100);
saveas(f, 'FigureWithData.fig');
Create a histogram from counts and edges
f2 = figure;
[values, edges] = histcounts(x, 100);
h2 = histogram('BinCounts', values, 'BinEdges', edges);
saveas(f2, 'FigureWithoutData.fig');
Show the sizes of the files
D = dir('*.fig');
for thefile = 1:numel(D)
fprintf("File %s has size %d.\n", D(thefile).name, D(thefile).bytes)
end
Try manipulating the count-and-edges histogram
f3 = figure;
h3 = histogram('BinCounts', values, 'BinEdges', edges);
morebins(h3) % This will error
