Linking Graphs to Variables & Data Source Properties

Plot objects let you link a MATLAB expression with properties that contain data. For example, the lineseries object has data source properties associated with the XData, YData, and ZData properties. These properties are called XDataSource, YDataSource, and ZDataSource.

To use a data source property:

• Assign the name of a variable to the data source property that you want linked to an expression.
• Calculate a new value for the variable.
• Call refreshdata to update the plot object data.

refreshdata lets you specify whether to use a variable in the base workspace or the workspace of the function from which you call refreshdata.

Data Source Example

The following example illustrates how to use this technique:

Changing the Size of Data Variables

function datasource_ex
t = 0:pi/20:2*pi;
y = exp(sin(t));
h = plot(t,y,'YDataSource','y');
for k = 1:.1:10
	y = exp(sin(t.*k));
	refreshdata(h,'caller') % Evaluate y in the function workspace
	drawnow; pause(.1)
end

If you change one data source property to a variable that contains data of a different dimension, you might cause the function to generate a warning and not render the graph until you have changed all data source properties to appropriate values.