Help using tiledlayout and nexttile functions

Hello.

I will really be appreciated if someone could help me with the follow inquiry:

I am trying to plot several subplots using tiledlayout and nexttile functions, however I am not getting the final plot as I would like (i.e., 8-by-2 tiled chart layout).

I had read https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/tiledlayout.html and https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/nexttile.html to learn more about these functions.

Any help is more than welcome.

Regards.

clear;
data = readmatrix('Data2');


T = data(:,1);
T = seconds(data(:,1));
T.Format = 'hh:mm';
T3 = data(:,3);
T4 = data(:,4);
T5 = data(:,5);
T6 = data(:,6);
T7 = data(:,7);
T8 = data(:,8);
T9 = data(:,9);
T10 = data(:,10);
T11 = data(:,11);
T12 = data(:,12);
T13 = data(:,13);
T14 = data(:,14);
T15 = data(:,15);
T16 = data(:,16);
tiledlayout(8,2);

nexttile
%figure;  % Place "figure" in this section allow to plot this data in a separate window.
plot (T,T3,'x');
title 'Emitted Signal from NAA Station';
ylabel ('Phase');
xlabel ('Samples');
nexttile
%figure;
plot (T,T4,'x');
title 'Emitted Signal from NAA Station';
ylabel ('Apmlitude');
xlabel ('Samples');
% figure;
nexttile
plot (T,T5,'x');
title 'Emitted Signal from NLK Station';
ylabel ('Phase');
xlabel ('Samples');
% figure;
nexttile
plot (T,T6,'x');
title 'Emitted Signal from NLK Station';
ylabel ('Amplitude');
xlabel ('Samples');
% figure;
nexttile
plot (T,T7,'x');
title 'Emitted Signal from NDK Station';
ylabel ('Phase');
xlabel ('Samples');
% figure;
nexttile
plot (T,T8,'x');
title 'Emitted Signal from NDK Station';
ylabel ('Amplitude');
xlabel ('Samples');
% figure;
nexttile
plot (T,T9,'x');
title 'Emitted Signal from NWC Station';
ylabel ('Phase');
xlabel ('Samples');
% figure;
nexttile
plot (T,T10,'x');
title 'Emitted Signal from NWC Station';
ylabel ('Amplitude');
xlabel ('Samples');
% figure;
nexttile
plot (T,T11,'x');
title 'Emitted Signal from NPM Station';
ylabel ('Phase');
xlabel ('Samples');
% figure;
nexttile
plot (T,T12,'x');
title 'Emitted Signal from NPM Station';
ylabel ('Amplitude');
xlabel ('Samples');
% figure;
nexttile
plot (T,T13,'x');
title 'Emitted Signal from NPM II Station';
ylabel ('Phase');
xlabel ('Samples');
% figure;
nexttile
plot (T,T14,'x');
title 'Emitted Signal from NPM II Station';
ylabel ('Amplitude');
xlabel ('Samples');
% figure;
nexttile
plot (T,T15,'x');
title 'Emitted Signal from NAU Station';
ylabel ('Phase');
xlabel ('Samples');
% figure;
nexttile
plot (T,T16,'x');
title 'Emitted Signal from NAu Station';
ylabel ('Amplitude');
xlabel ('Samples');

Regards.

Answer 1

[the cyclist]

It's unclear to me what you are expecting to get, but this code works exactly as I would expect.

You have defined an 8x2 grid of plots, but you have only actually called nexttile/plot 14 times. Therefore, you fill in the first 14 subplot slots (in the default order, which is row-major). The last 2 slots are empty.

[Angel Lozada]

Dear the cyclist

Thanks for your reply.

I called nexttile/plot 14 times because I am plotting 14 different data. I am sure there is a short way to do it, but the current one is how I figured out to do it.

I am looking to get an image like the attached one named VLF_220919_E (just for referece).

In the attached file named mat2, it is possible to see what I looking to get and what I got it.

Regards.

[the cyclist]

There are many differences between the expected and actual. Here are some I notice:

• Expected has 12 subplots instead of 14
• Expected does not have x- or y-axis labels
• Expected does not have x-axis tick labels (the numbers)
• Actual has larger, bold titles for each subplot
• In your code, you made an 8x2 grid of subplots, which leaves 2 empty spaces. You could have used 7x2.
• The data between the two plots seems different. It seems that higher data density in actual plot makes it less readable?
• Expected has grid lines

The overall effect of many of these differences is to make the subplots more "crowded", which I assume is what you don't like. But we don't know which of these elements are important to keep for you use case.

[Angel Lozada]

Dear the cyclist.

Thanks for your support, I really appreciated all your suggestions.

The attached figure that show the "expected" plots, is just for reference; is the same kind of data but not the same data.

What I would like is the box size for each subplot could be looks like the "expected" one.

Is there a way to enlarge the high of each box size?

Regards

clear;
data = readmatrix('Data2');
n=200;

T = data(:,1);
% T = seconds(data(:,1));
%T.Format = 'hh:mm';
T3 = data(:,3);
m3 = movmean (T3,n);
T4 = data(:,4);
m4 = movmean (T4,n);
T5 = data(:,5);
m5 = movmean (T5,n);
T6 = data(:,6);
m6 = movmean (T6,n);
T7 = data(:,7);
m7 = movmean (T7,n);
T8 = data(:,8);
m8 = movmean (T8,n);
T9 = data(:,9);
m9 = movmean (T9,n);
T10 = data(:,10);
m10 = movmean (T10,n);
T11 = data(:,11);
m11 = movmean (T11,n);
T12 = data(:,12);
m12 = movmean (T12,n);
T13 = data(:,13);
m13 = movmean (T13,n);
T14 = data(:,14);
m14 = movmean (T14,n);
T15 = data(:,15);
m15 = movmean (T15,n);
T16 = data(:,16);
m16 = movmean (T16,n);
tiledlayout(7,2);


nexttile
plot (T,m3,'-');
set(gca,'YTick',[]);
set(gca,'XTick',[]);
title ('\fontsize{6}Emitted Signal from NAA Station');
% ylabel ('Phase');
% xlabel ('Samples');
nexttile
plot (T,m4,'-');
set(gca,'YTick',[]);
set(gca,'XTick',[]);
title '\fontsize{6}Emitted Signal from NAA Station';
% ylabel ('Apmlitude');
% xlabel ('Samples');
nexttile
plot (T,m5,'-');
set(gca,'YTick',[]);
set(gca,'XTick',[]);
title '\fontsize{6}Emitted Signal from NLK Station';
% ylabel ('Phase');
% xlabel ('Samples');
nexttile
plot (T,m6,'-');
set(gca,'YTick',[]);
set(gca,'XTick',[]);
title '\fontsize{6}Emitted Signal from NLK Station';
% ylabel ('Amplitude');
% xlabel ('Samples');
nexttile
plot (T,m7,'-');
set(gca,'YTick',[]);
set(gca,'XTick',[]);
title '\fontsize{6}Emitted Signal from NDK Station';
% ylabel ('Phase');
% xlabel ('Samples');
nexttile
plot (T,m8,'-');
set(gca,'YTick',[]);
set(gca,'XTick',[]);
title '\fontsize{6}Emitted Signal from NDK Station';
% ylabel ('Amplitude');
% xlabel ('Samples');
nexttile
plot (T,m9,'-');
set(gca,'YTick',[]);
set(gca,'XTick',[]);
title '\fontsize{6}Emitted Signal from NWC Station';
% ylabel ('Phase');
% xlabel ('Samples');
nexttile
plot (T,m10,'-');
set(gca,'YTick',[]);
set(gca,'XTick',[]);
title '\fontsize{6}Emitted Signal from NWC Station';
% ylabel ('Amplitude');
% xlabel ('Samples');
nexttile
plot (T,m11,'-');
set(gca,'YTick',[]);
set(gca,'XTick',[]);
title '\fontsize{6}Emitted Signal from NPM Station';
% ylabel ('Phase');
% xlabel ('Samples');
nexttile
plot (T,m12,'-');
set(gca,'YTick',[]);
set(gca,'XTick',[]);
title '\fontsize{6}Emitted Signal from NPM Station';
% ylabel ('Amplitude');
% xlabel ('Samples');
nexttile
plot (T,m13,'-');
set(gca,'YTick',[]);
set(gca,'XTick',[]);
title '\fontsize{6}Emitted Signal from NPM II Station';
% ylabel ('Phase');
% xlabel ('Samples');
nexttile
plot (T,m14,'-');
set(gca,'YTick',[]);
set(gca,'XTick',[]);
title '\fontsize{6}Emitted Signal from NPM II Station';
% ylabel ('Amplitude');
% xlabel ('Samples');
nexttile
plot (T,m15,'-');
set(gca,'YTick',[]);
set(gca,'XTick',[]);
title '\fontsize{6}Emitted Signal from NAU Station';
% ylabel ('Phase');
% xlabel ('Samples');
nexttile
plot (T,m16,'-');
set(gca,'YTick',[]);
set(gca,'XTick',[]);
title '\fontsize{6}Emitted Signal from NAu Station';

% ylabel ('Amplitude');
% xlabel ('Samples');

[the cyclist]

It will help to use compact tile spacing and padding. Call tiledlayout with a handle:

t = tiledlayout(7,2);

and then run

t.TileSpacing = 'compact';
t.Padding     = 'compact';

This will reduce the white space. Other than that, I'm not sure there is much more you can do to make the subplots larger.