how to change order of legends?
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I dont want to change the order of my plots, but I want to change the order in the legend list. How to do?
采纳的回答
Afiq Azaibi
2024-2-29
编辑：Afiq Azaibi
2024-3-1
Three ways to change the order of items in the legend
I'll review two ways to flexibly set the legend's order and one way to reverse the legend order.
Flexibly set the legend order:
Let's take this simple example:
figure;
ax = gca;
hold(ax, 'on')
p1 = plot(1:10, LineWidth=5, DisplayName='p1');
p2 = plot(10:-1:1, LineWidth=5, DisplayName='p2');
p3 = plot(ones(10,1)*5, LineWidth=5, DisplayName='p3');
1) The first way is to specify the order the object handles in the legend command. If we wanted p2 on top, p3 in the middle, and p1 on the bottom, we would call this:
legend([p2, p3, p1])
2) The second way you can do this is by updating the child order of the axes. By default, the legend will order the objects in the same order of creation. This is the reverse order of the axes’ Children property since the oldest object gets placed at the bottom:
ax.Children = [p1; p3; p2];
legend;
Note: Updating the order of the Children property will impact the stacking order of the objects in the axes. While you can achieve the same resulting legend as in the first approach, it will alter the appearance in the axes.
Reverse the legend order:
3) Starting in 23b, a new Direction property was added to legend. This property inverts the order of the legend entries. By default, the value of this property is 'normal'.
hold(ax, 'off')
p = plot([1:10; 2:11; 3:12; 4:13]', LineWidth=3);
l = legend;
l.Direction = 'reverse';
Some objects like a stacked bar and area have an inherent order. The legend will set Direction to 'reverse' automatically:
bar(magic(5), 'stacked');
legend;
area(magic(5));
legend;
You can revert back to the previous behavior by specifying the legend's direction to be 'normal'
legend(Direction='normal');
1 个评论
Shara Gremillion
2024-2-10
移动：Adam Danz
2024-3-1
Works great! Thanks.
更多回答（10 个）
I think Mr. M means the following: In the figure GUI, after one has worked hard to generate a nice figure by combining the outputs of various scripts via copy + paste, how can one change the order of the legend?
In earlier versions of MATLAB, one could achieve this by cutting and repasting traces. They would then reappear at the bottom of the legend. So you would take the trace you want to be second, cut and paste it, then do the same for the third, all the way to the Nth, and then the legend would have the desired order. Now it is no longer possible to do this. The figure somehow remembers the position of the trace before it was cut.
But there is a WORK-AROUND! Simply cut the trace, paste it in onto a different axis of a different figure, then cut that trace and paste it back onto the original figure. This stymies matlab's attempt to remember the order of the trace and puts it onto the bottom of the legend.
6 个评论
Navid Naderializadeh
2018-3-7
Great answer! Actually you don't need a separate figure to paste; just click and select the curves in the order you want, then press Ctrl+X and then immediately Ctrl+V.
sarmad a
2018-3-15
移动：Dyuman Joshi
2023-9-18
@David: you really saved my time !! Thanks
Jeremy Cribb
2018-3-15
Hi, Navid. Your suggestion works for older versions of matlab, in my experience up to 2014b. I haven't used versions between R2014b and R2017b. David's strategy was required for me to re-order in v2017b.
Mr M.
2018-3-20
Walter Roberson
2019-8-19
编辑：Walter Roberson
2021-1-15
fariborz eshraghi
2021-12-5
That's a wonderful help, thanks.
You can specify the handles in a particular order when you create the legend.
% Sample data
x = 0:360;
y1 = sind(x);
y2 = cosd(x);
y3 = tand(x);
% Set up axes
axis([0 360 -1 1])
hold on
% Create plots
h = gobjects(3, 1);
h(1) = plot(x, y1, 'DisplayName', 'sine');
h(2) = plot(x, y2, 'DisplayName', 'cosine');
h(3) = plot(x, y3, 'DisplayName', 'tangent');
% Create legend -- cosine first then sine and finally tangent
legend(h([2 1 3]))
Rick
2018-3-24
use this code to swap the order of two plots:
plots=get(gca, 'Children');
legend(plots(2, 1), {'Second line', 'First line'});
5 个评论
Walter Roberson
2018-8-21
You probably mean
legend(plots([2, 1]), {'Second line', 'First line'});
Gopinath Karuppannan
2021-10-29
By using the above code, the order of the legends (only strings) are varying but the colors are not varied.
Just a note that if you plot 2 plots in the same figure, plots([1]) is the last plot (the 2nd one) that you plotted, and plots([2]) is the first plot that you plotted, at least in 2020B version. Be careful to maintain the correct legend name for the correct plot.
So if you wanted to switch the order of legend entries from the default, you would write (supposing you have 3 plots for clarity of example):
figure();
plot(first_x, first_y);
hold on;
plot(second_x, second_y);
plot(third_x, third_y);
plots=get(gca, 'Children');
legend(plots([1, 2, 3]), {'third line', 'second line', 'first line'})
Walter Roberson
2023-9-28
It is not clear what plots is in your code? You are using it as if it is a function or a multidimensional array.
@Walter Roberson Thanks for the catch. I've updated my comment with a line to define plots as it was used above (and fixed the same typo that Rick had)
a = linspace(1,10,10);
b1 = sin(a);
Plot1 = plot(a,b1);
hold on
b2 = cos(a);
Plot2 = plot(a,b2);
hold off
legend([plot2 plot1],{‘Second’,’First’})
2 个评论
Jim Bosley
2019-8-19
Last line needs plot handles capitalized, as they were defined.
a = linspace(1,10,10);
b1 = sin(a);
Plot1 = plot(a,b1);
hold on
b2 = cos(a);
Plot2 = plot(a,b2);
hold off
legend([Plot2 Plot1],{‘Second’,’First’})
MCH
2020-12-16
@Ed: This solution works great
Liwei Wang
2019-1-25
Cut+paste is a good idea. But sometimes it won't work because the plots are pretty close to each other. An alternative approach is to change the order of the plots by code:
Here is the copy of the code:
figure
scatter(rand(150,1),rand(150,1))
hold on
fill([0.2 0.5 0.5 0.2],[0.2 0.2 0.5 0.5],'r')
hg = line([0 0.6],[0.6 0]);
set(hg,'LineWidth',12,'Color','g')
h = get(gca,'Children');
set(gca,'Children',[h(3) h(2) h(1)])
Refresh legend then you will see the change.
1 个评论
Giorgia Calisti
2020-6-9
Exactly what I was looking for!
Thank you
Kris Govertsen
2021-1-15
This is how I was able to change the order of the legend on a figure with multiple subplots of area plots:
Before:
I want the order of the legend to follow the order of the colors in the area plot
% a is my figure
% If I type
If I type the following into the command window: a.Children... it returns:
% a.Children
%
% ans =
%
% 5×1 graphics array:
%
% Legend (Grid, VRFB error, VRFB Power, VRFB Energy, LIB error, LIB Power, LIB Energy, Solar, Tidal)
% Axes (Tidal RES)
% Axes (Solar PV RES)
% Axes (VRFB Cost)
% Axes (LIB Cost)
So a.Children(1) is my legend!
% Re-order Legend
lbl = a.Children(1).String; % Retrieve legend labels
numlbl = length(lbl); % Determine number of lables
order = sort(1:1:numlbl,'descend'); % Create array of label numbers in descending order
newlbl = lbl(order); % Create new labels in descending order
legend(findobj(a.Children(2),'Type','area'),newlbl) % Set the legend to follow the new labels
hope this helps!
2 个评论
Jan Heinsoth
2021-2-22
Nice, someone wanted to do the same as me. Thanks
LIU
2022-3-22
Hi, I have a silimar problem, and guess your method could be useful for me. But I don't know how to apply your code suited to my case. Would you please kindly have a look at my problem and give me a hand? Thank you very much.
The link is :
FM
2018-5-22
1 个投票
There is a good solution in the `Update` section of this post on Stack Overflow: http://stackoverflow.com/a/39104494/3230708
George
2015-9-23
Is this something you are after, the question is not clear
x=magic(2);
plot(x(:,1));
hold
plot(x(:,2),'r');
legend('Data1','Data2');
%blue = Data1
%red=Data2
to change that simple reverse the string order
legend('Data2','Data1');
see also this http://nl.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/legend.html and this http://nl.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/legend-properties.html For more information on handling the legends
Kris Govertsen
2021-1-15
This is how I was able to change the order of the legend on a figure with multiple subplots of area plots:
Before:
I want the order of the legend to follow the order of the colors in the area plot
% a is my figure
% If I type
If I type the following into the command window: a.Children... it returns:
% a.Children
%
% ans =
%
% 5×1 graphics array:
%
% Legend (Grid, VRFB error, VRFB Power, VRFB Energy, LIB error, LIB Power, LIB Energy, Solar, Tidal)
% Axes (Tidal RES)
% Axes (Solar PV RES)
% Axes (VRFB Cost)
% Axes (LIB Cost)
So a.Children(1) is my legend!
% Re-order Legend
lbl = a.Children(1).String; % Retrieve legend labels
numlbl = length(lbl); % Determine number of lables
order = sort(1:1:numlbl,'descend'); % Create array of label numbers in descending order
newlbl = lbl(order); % Create new labels in descending order
legend(findobj(a.Children(2),'Type','area'),newlbl) % Set the legend to follow the new labels
hope this helps!
Sandeep A S V
2022-1-7
编辑：Sandeep A S V
2022-1-7
0 个投票
There is a simple solution using the property inspector GUI.
1.Go to Edit menu on the figure window
2. Select 'current object properties'
3. Select one of the plots in your figure
4. Change the property 'SeriesIndex' in COLOR AND STYLING tab.
1 个评论
Muhammad Tauha Ali
2024-4-7
In 2022b, order can be interactively changed by moving the object order through mouse and updating the series index. The legend will need to be regenerated after the changes though.
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