Change the distance between boxplots

I use following code to create the boxplot. I want to change the distance between the two boxes. However, I cant find any property to control the distance.

rng default  % For reproducibility
x = randn(100,15);
figure
boxplot(x,'PlotStyle','compact')
set(gca,'FontSize',10,'XTickLabelRotation',90)

Also, the XTickLabelRotation does not change the xtick label orientaiton. How can I change orientaion?

Answer 1

[dpb]

1. boxplot doesn't support variably-spaced box locations.
2. use 'LabelOrientation','Horizontal' to maintain normal tick label orientation.

On the latter, why TMW chose to create a different name for the property instead of maintaining consistency with all other plotting routines is one of those maddening inconsistencies they love to introduce -- more and more so recently, it seems.

I suppose it goes to the specialized plot that's to be easy to use and so doesn't need/shouldn't have all the bells and whistles of a generic axes object. So, they provide the two choices of rotated or not with a different name. I suppose there is some logic there...

[Imran Kanjoo]

I see the space between the two boxes is much higher than it should be.

[dpb]

That's totally dependent upon the number of boxes and the size of the axes object -- boxplot spreads them across the given axes size.

subplot(2,1,1)
boxplot(randn(100,15),'PlotStyle','compact','LabelOrientation','horizontal')
subplot(2,1,2)
boxplot(randn(100,25),'PlotStyle','compact','LabelOrientation','horizontal')

produces

Alternatively,

boxplot(randn(100,15),'PlotStyle','compact','LabelOrientation','horizontal')
hAx=gca; hAx.Position(3)=hAx.Position(3)*15/25;

Reduce the width of the axes object.

I don't know what other behavior one would expect -- otherwsie the axis box would be left with a bunch of empty space if the number of bars plotted aren't spread out over the axis.

I suppose it is possible they could have implemented it at a given spacing and let the axes follow, but that doesn't match the behavior of any other plotting routine--they're chiildren of the axis, so they fill what they find.

[Imran Kanjoo]

Hi, thanks for reducing the width of the axes object. The last lines of codes work for me. How can I reduce the verticle axes height?

[dpb]

The position vector is a 4-vector of [left bottom width height]. Adjust as desired. See the doc on axes properties for all the details.