Common left ylabel and right ylabel for subplots

Hello,

I have a figure with 6 subplots in 2 rows and 3 columns. Each subplot has two y axes, first say "Y-1" and second, "Y-2". I want single ylabel on each side for the entire figure. I have following code that takes care of common ylabel on the left hand side:

fig = figure;
subplot(2, 3, 1)
...
subplot(2, 3, 6)
...
handle = axes(fig,'visible','off'); 
handle.XLabel.Visible='on';
handle.YLabel.Visible='on';
xlabel(handle, 'X')
ylabel(handle, 'Y-1')

For right hand common ylabel, I have tried using

yyaxis right

However, that doesn't work for me. Any help on this will be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks!

Answer 1

[Harsh Kumar]

Hi Mayank ,

It is my understanding that you are unable to assign a common right ylabel for your multi axes graph using yylabel.This might be because there doesn,t exists a function like yylabel as i tried in matlab R2023a .

To resolve this issue, you may use the matlab inbuilt "yyaxis" OR "annotation" function of matlab to get the desired results .

For your reference, the below example demonstrates a simple approach to assign a common right label to a multi-axes graph using "annotation" function :

fig = figure;

% Subplot 1
subplot(2, 3, 1);
% ... code for subplot 1

% Subplot 6
subplot(2, 3, 6);
% ... code for subplot 6

% Create a common ylabel on the right side
annotation('textarrow', [0.91 0.91], [0.45 0.55], 'String', 'Y-1', 'HorizontalAlignment', 'center', 'VerticalAlignment', 'middle', 'Color', 'red', 'FontSize', 12);

% Adjust the figure's position to make room for the ylabel
fig.Position(3) = fig.Position(3) + 0.1;

[Mayank Parmar]

Hi Harsh

Thanks!

I wanted to say 'yyaxis' in my original question, unfortunately I mixed it up and said 'yylabel'. That approach has not worked for me. I ended up using 'annotation' as per your suggestion for label on both sides to have consistency.

Many thanks for your response! In case you know how I could get 'yyaxis' to work on subplots, please write back on this. I will wait until evening to see if you or someone else knows a way around this, otherwise, I will accept the answer you have provided.

Once again, thank you!

[Harsh Kumar]

Hi Mayank,

To my understanding , You can do it with 'yyaxis' as well but with a bit adjustment of label coordinates as 'yyaxis' unlike 'annotation' is function related to axis not plot/figure.

For your reference, the below example demonstrates a simple approach to assign a common right label to a multi-axes graph using 'yyaxis' function:

fig = figure;

% Subplot 1
subplot(2, 3, 1);
% ... code for subplot 1

% Subplot 6
subplot(2, 3, 6);
% ... code for subplot 6

% Set the right-hand y-axis label
yyaxis right;
ylabel('Y-1');

% Adjust the position and height of the right-hand y-axis label
h = get(gca, 'ylabel');
h.Position(1) = h.Position(1) + 0.1;  % Adjust the x-coordinate as needed
h.Position(2) = h.Position(2) + 0.9;  % Adjust the y-coordinate as needed

[Mayank Parmar]

Hi Harsh,

I tried similar approach previously but in this case, 'ylabel' on the left hand side disappears. For now, I will stick with the annotations and fiddle with this problem when I have more time. I am not closing this question yet as I would like to come back to it with or for a solution that uses 'ylabel' to get labels on both sides.

Thank you for your patience!