Legend for variable number of plots

Hi, I am plotting a variable 'y' whose size is 'm-by-n' against 'x' whose size is 'm-by-1'. So, I get 'n' plots on the current figure. Now, how can I write insert legend without knowing the value of n. I mean, how do I give dynamic input to legend function.

plot(x,y)

legend('Mode 1','Mode 2','Mode 3',...'Mode n')

Answer 1

[Guillaume]

legend(arrayfun(@(mode) sprintf('Mode %d', mode), 1:size(y, 2), 'UniformOutput', false))

Would be one way of doing it.

[Kiran Sagar]

Thank you very much.

Could you explain briefly, what does the syntax mean?

[Guillaume]

The arrayfun part builds a cell array of strings that is then passed to legend. It is equivalent to:

legendstrings = cell(1, size(y, 2)); %arrayfun automatically constructs a cell array the right size
for mode = 1:size(y, 2)  %this is the second input of arrayfun
   legendstrings{mode} = sprintf('Mode %d', mode); %1st input of arrayfun, sort of
end
legend(legendstrings);

[Kiran Sagar]

Thank you very much. That was helpful