feather

Arrows from x-axis

• 

Syntax

feather(U,V)

feather(Z)

feather(___,LineSpec)

feather(___,Name=Value)

feather(ax,___)

f = feather(___)

Description

feather(U,V) plots arrows originating from the x-axis. Specify the direction of arrows using the Cartesian components U and V, with U indicating the x-components and V indicating the y-components. The nth arrow has its base at n on the x-axis. The number of arrows matches the number of elements in U and V.

feather(Z) plots arrows using the complex values specified by Z, with the real part indicating the x-components and the imaginary part indicating the y-components. This syntax is equivalent to feather(real(Z),imag(Z)).

feather(___,LineSpec) sets the line style, marker symbol, and color for the arrows.

feather(___,Name=Value) sets properties of the plot using one or more name-value arguments. For example, you can specify the color and thickness of the arrows. For a list of properties, see Line Properties. (since R2024b)

feather(ax,___) plots arrows in the specified axes instead of the current axes.

f = feather(___) returns a vector of Line objects with length(U)+1 elements. The first length(U) elements represent individual arrows, and the last element represents a horizontal line along the x-axis. Use these Line objects to control the appearance of the plot after creating it.

Examples

Create Feather Plot Using Cartesian Values

Create a feather plot by specifying the components of each arrow as Cartesian values. The nth arrow originates from n on the x-axis.

t = -pi/2:pi/8:pi/2;
u = 10*sin(t);
v = 10*cos(t);
feather(u,v)

Create Feather Plot Using Polar Values

Create a feather plot using polar coordinates by first converting them to Cartesian coordinates.

To do this, create vectors with polar coordinates. Convert them to Cartesian coordinates using the pol2cart function. Then, create the plot.

th = -pi/2:pi/16:0;
r = 10*ones(size(th));
[u,v] = pol2cart(th,r);
feather(u,v)

Create Feather Plot Using Complex Values

Create a vector of complex values. Then, display them using a feather plot. The real part determines the x-component of each arrow, and the imaginary part determines the y-component.

Z = [2+3i -1-3i -1+i 2i 3-4i -2-2i -2+4i 0.5-i -3i 1+i];
feather(Z)

Specify Color of Feather Plot

Create a feather plot with red arrows.

t = -pi/2:pi/8:pi/2;
u = 10*sin(t);
v = 10*cos(t);
feather(u,v,'r')

Specify Line Width and Color of One Arrow

Specify the line width and color of a single arrow by assigning the arrow to a variable and then setting its properties. To do this, first create a feather plot and return an array of Line objects.

t = -pi/2:pi/8:pi/2;
u = 10*sin(t);
v = 10*cos(t);
f = feather(u,v);

Assign the first arrow to a variable. The first arrow corresponds to the first elements of u and v. Then, change the line width and color.

f1 = f(1);
f1.Color = 'r';
f1.LineWidth = 2;

Specify Axes for Feather Plot

Starting in R2019b, you can display a tiling of plots using the tiledlayout and nexttile functions. Call the tiledlayout function to create a 1-by-2 tiled chart layout. Call the nexttile function to create an axes object and return the object as ax1. Create the left plot by passing ax1 to the feather function. Add a title to the plot by passing the axes to the title function. Repeat the process to create the right plot.

tiledlayout(1,2)

% Left plot
ax1 = nexttile;
t = 0:pi/8:pi/2;
u1 = 10*sin(t);
v1 = 10*cos(t);
feather(ax1,u1,v1)
title(ax1,'Left Plot')

% Right plot
ax2 = nexttile;
u2 = zeros(5,1);
v2 = [1 -2 3 -4 5];
feather(ax2,u2,v2)
title(ax2,'Right Plot')

Input Arguments

U — x-components

scalar | vector | matrix

x-components, specified as a scalar, vector, or matrix. Specify Cartesian values. To convert data from polar to Cartesian, use pol2cart.

The size of U must match the size of V.

V — y-components

scalar | vector | matrix

y-components, specified as a scalar, vector, or matrix. Specify Cartesian values. To convert data from polar to Cartesian, use pol2cart.

The size of V must match the size of U.

Z — Complex values

scalar | vector | matrix

Complex values, specified as a scalar, vector, or matrix. The real part of Z indicates the x-components of arrows, and the imaginary part indicates the y-components.

LineSpec — Line style, marker, and color

string scalar | character vector

Line style, marker, and color, specified as a string scalar or character vector containing symbols. The symbols can appear in any order. You do not need to specify all three characteristics (line style, marker, and color). For example, if you omit the line style and specify the marker, then the plot shows only the marker and no line.

Example: "--or" is a red dashed line with circle markers.

Line Style	Description	Resulting Line
"-"	Solid line
"--"	Dashed line
":"	Dotted line
"-."	Dash-dotted line

Marker	Description	Resulting Marker
"o"	Circle
"+"	Plus sign
"*"	Asterisk
"."	Point
"x"	Cross
"_"	Horizontal line
"|"	Vertical line
"square"	Square
"diamond"	Diamond
"^"	Upward-pointing triangle
"v"	Downward-pointing triangle
">"	Right-pointing triangle
"<"	Left-pointing triangle
"pentagram"	Pentagram
"hexagram"	Hexagram

Color Name	Short Name	RGB Triplet	Appearance
"red"	"r"	[1 0 0]
"green"	"g"	[0 1 0]
"blue"	"b"	[0 0 1]
"cyan"	"c"	[0 1 1]
"magenta"	"m"	[1 0 1]
"yellow"	"y"	[1 1 0]
"black"	"k"	[0 0 0]
"white"	"w"	[1 1 1]

ax — Target axes

Axes object

Target axes, specified as an Axes object.

Name-Value Arguments

Specify optional pairs of arguments as Name1=Value1,...,NameN=ValueN, where Name is the argument name and Value is the corresponding value. Name-value arguments must appear after other arguments, but the order of the pairs does not matter.

Example: feather([1 2 3 4],[5 6 7 8],LineWidth=2) plots arrows with a two-point line thickness.

Note

The properties listed here are only a subset. For a full list, see Line Properties.

Color — Line color

[0 0 0] (default) | RGB triplet | hexadecimal color code | "r" | "g" | "b" | ...

Line color, specified as an RGB triplet, a hexadecimal color code, a color name, or a short name. The default value of [0 0 0] corresponds to black.

For a custom color, specify an RGB triplet or a hexadecimal color code.

• An RGB triplet is a three-element row vector whose elements specify the intensities of the red, green, and blue components of the color. The intensities must be in the range [0,1], for example, [0.4 0.6 0.7].

• A hexadecimal color code is a string scalar or character vector that starts with a hash symbol (#) followed by three or six hexadecimal digits, which can range from 0 to F. The values are not case sensitive. Therefore, the color codes "#FF8800", "#ff8800", "#F80", and "#f80" are equivalent.

Alternatively, you can specify some common colors by name. This table lists the named color options, the equivalent RGB triplets, and hexadecimal color codes.

Color Name	Short Name	RGB Triplet	Hexadecimal Color Code	Appearance
"red"	"r"	[1 0 0]	"#FF0000"
"green"	"g"	[0 1 0]	"#00FF00"
"blue"	"b"	[0 0 1]	"#0000FF"
"cyan"	"c"	[0 1 1]	"#00FFFF"
"magenta"	"m"	[1 0 1]	"#FF00FF"
"yellow"	"y"	[1 1 0]	"#FFFF00"
"black"	"k"	[0 0 0]	"#000000"
"white"	"w"	[1 1 1]	"#FFFFFF"
"none"	Not applicable	Not applicable	Not applicable	No color

Here are the RGB triplets and hexadecimal color codes for the default colors MATLAB^® uses in many types of plots.

RGB Triplet	Hexadecimal Color Code	Appearance
[0 0.4470 0.7410]	"#0072BD"
[0.8500 0.3250 0.0980]	"#D95319"
[0.9290 0.6940 0.1250]	"#EDB120"
[0.4940 0.1840 0.5560]	"#7E2F8E"
[0.4660 0.6740 0.1880]	"#77AC30"
[0.3010 0.7450 0.9330]	"#4DBEEE"
[0.6350 0.0780 0.1840]	"#A2142F"

Example: "blue"

Example: [0 0 1]

Example: "#0000FF"

LineStyle — Line style

"-" (default) | "--" | ":" | "-." | "none"

Line style, specified as one of the options listed in this table.

Line Style	Description	Resulting Line
"-"	Solid line
"--"	Dashed line
":"	Dotted line
"-."	Dash-dotted line
"none"	No line	No line

LineWidth — Line width

0.5 (default) | positive value

Line width, specified as a positive value in points, where 1 point = 1/72 of an inch. If the line has markers, then the line width also affects the marker edges.

The line width cannot be thinner than the width of a pixel. If you set the line width to a value that is less than the width of a pixel on your system, the line displays as one pixel wide.

Extended Capabilities

GPU Arrays

Accelerate code by running on a graphics processing unit (GPU) using Parallel Computing Toolbox™.

The feather function supports GPU array input with these usage notes and limitations:

• This function accepts GPU arrays, but does not run on a GPU.

For more information, see Run MATLAB Functions on a GPU (Parallel Computing Toolbox).

Distributed Arrays

Partition large arrays across the combined memory of your cluster using Parallel Computing Toolbox™.

Usage notes and limitations:

• This function operates on distributed arrays, but executes in the client MATLAB.

For more information, see Run MATLAB Functions with Distributed Arrays (Parallel Computing Toolbox).

Version History

Introduced before R2006a

R2024b: Control appearance and behavior with name-value arguments

Control the appearance and behavior of feather plots by specifying name-value arguments. Previously, feather did not support name-value arguments.