ylabel changes position with ax.YAxisLocation = 'origin'

If I use

ax.YAxisLocation = 'origin';

the text of the ylabel changes position, going to the top of the plot and appearing horizontally, instead of being in a vertical posiyion, alongside the y-axis, as in a usual plot:

hold on
scatter(-rand(1,10),rand(1,10),120,'or','filled')
scatter(rand(1,10),rand(1,10),120,'ob','filled')
ax = gca;
ax.YAxisLocation = 'origin';
ylabel('my y-label')

How to have the ylabel in a vertical position, alongside the y-axis, as in a usual plot, when using ax.YAxisLocation = 'origin' ?

Answer 1

[Star Strider]

The axis labels are text objects with the same properties. (Although not all the properties, such as 'VerticalAlignment' are listed in the ylabel properties, they can still be adressed.)

Try this —

hold on
scatter(-rand(1,10),rand(1,10),120,'or','filled')
scatter(rand(1,10),rand(1,10),120,'ob','filled')
ax = gca;
ax.YAxisLocation = 'origin';
hyl = ylabel('my y-label');
% get(hyl)
pos = hyl.Position;
hyl.Position(2) = mean(ylim);                               % Use Original Values, Excep[t For The 'y' Coordinate
hyl.Rotation = 90;                                          % Change 'Rotation' Value
hyl.VerticalAlignment = 'middle';                           % Set Hidden 'text' Property

There are still other tweaks possible if this is not exactly what you want.

.

[Sim]

thanks a lot @Star Strider! Very useful your answer as well! :-)

[Star Strider]

As always, my pleasure!

Answer 2

[the cyclist]

It's a bit kludgy, but

rng default
hold on
scatter(-rand(1,10),rand(1,10),120,'or','filled')
scatter(rand(1,10),rand(1,10),120,'ob','filled')
ax = gca;
ax.YAxisLocation = 'origin';
yL = ylabel('my y-label');
set(yL,"Rotation",90)
set(yL,"Position",[-0.25 0.5 -1])

Make that first number defining the Position closer to -1, if you had wanted the label all the way off to the left.

[Sim]

Thanks a lot @the cyclist!! Both your and @Star Strider solutions are great!

This time I would accept the @Star Strider one, since to me, it looks like slightly "more automatic", i.e. I do not need to set manually the values in here:

set(yL,"Position",[-0.25 0.5 -1])