As of now (2009-Jul-13), MATLAB doesn't have a built-in function to plot bars with with error bars on top of them. This function solves that problem.

To a beginning user, this provides a very simple way of plotting bar with errorbars with a simple command:
errorbarbar(y,e); % where y is the height of the bars and e is the limit to plot as error bars (of length 2*e, about y).

For an intermediate user, this function provides the handles to the BAR and ERRORBAR lines for further modification.
[b,e] = errorbarbar(y,e); % or ...
[b,e] = errorbarbar(x,y,e); % where x is center location of the group of bars

For an advanced user, this function also provides ways to modify any and all of the bar and line series properties while plotting it in the first place.

Example:
barSettings = {'facealpha',0.5,'edgecolor',[0.5 0.5 0.5]};
lineSettings = {'linestyle','--','linewidth',2};
[b,e] = errorbarbar(x,y,e,barSettings,lineSettings);
set(b,'facecolor',[0 0.5 0]); % set all bars to color green

Hint: You can use the lineSettings variable to use distinct upper and lower limits.

What it DOESN'T do:
1. Plot horizontal bar graphs
2. Work with bar(y,e,barSettings,lineSettings). Instead, use:
bar(x,y,e,barSettings,lineSettings).