How to customize the subplots?

I searched a lot and read the documentation in Matlab, in order to plot 6 plot in one figure. Now it is done but really hard to view:

I want to set 5 years intervals for the x-axis in all plots and small the font size of the x-axis and y-axis in all subplots. Also, I would like to show each subplot with a specific color.

Here is my code:

figure;
subplot(2,3,1);
plot(Date,SI_table.SPI_1month, 'linewidth',1);
xlabel('time step')
ylabel('SPI 1month')
xticks(Date(1:12:end))
ax=gca;
set(ax,'XTickLabelRotation',90)
set(gca,'XTick',(5))

subplot(2,3,2);
plot(Date,SI_table.SPI_3month, 'linewidth',1);
xlabel('time step')
ylabel('SPI 3month')
xticks(Date(1:12:end))
ax=gca;
set(ax,'XTickLabelRotation',90)

subplot(2,3,3);
plot(Date,SI_table.SPI_6month, 'linewidth',1);
xlabel('time step')
ylabel('SPI 6month')
xticks(Date(1:12:end))
ax=gca;
set(ax,'XTickLabelRotation',90)

subplot(2,3,4);
plot(Date,SI_table.SPI_12month, 'linewidth',1);
xlabel('time step')
ylabel('SPI 12month')
xticks(Date(1:12:end))
ax=gca;
set(ax,'XTickLabelRotation',90)

subplot(2,3,5);
plot(Date,SI_table.SPI_24month, 'linewidth',1);
xlabel('time step')
ylabel('SPI 24month')
xticks(Date(1:12:end))
ax=gca;
set(ax,'XTickLabelRotation',90)

subplot(2,3,6);
plot(Date,SI_table.SPI_48month, 'linewidth',1);
xlabel('time step')
ylabel('SPI 48month')
xticks(Date(1:12:end))
ax=gca;
set(ax,'XTickLabelRotation',90)

Thank you so much

Answer 1

[dpb]

Just make the additional adjustments to axes/line properties in each subplot as you create it.

As you've written it, that means adding the same code line six different places in the code for every additional line of code you need; rather tedious.

If you want to set a property for all subplots, you can do that using the cell array syntax of handles/properties for the set function, but to do that you needed to have saved the handles to all the axes instead of using a single variable repetitively as you had done above.

It would be more efficient coding to use a loop...

plotMonths=[1,3,6,12,24,48].';           % list of month intervals desired for plot
plotColors=['r';'b';'k';'g';'o';'c'];    % colors; use whatever desired or rgb triplet
figure;
for i=1:6
  hAx(i)=subplot(2,3,i);          % create subplot, save axes handle
  hL(i)=plot(Date,SI_table.("SPI_"+plotMonths(i)+"month"), 'linewidth',1,plotColors(i));
  xlabel('time step')
  ylabel("SPI "+plotMonths(i)+"month")
  xticks(Date(1:12:end))
  set(hAx(i),'XTickLabelRotation',90)
end

[BN]

Dear dpb

Nice and clear Idea, but unfortunately in this line:

hL(i)=plot(Date,SI_table.("SPI_"+plotMonths(i)+"month"), 'linewidth',1,plotColors(i));

I gor this error:

Error using plot
Data must be a single matrix Y or a list of pairs X,Y.
Error in Untitled5 (line 6)
  hL(i)=plot(Date,SI_table.("SPI_"+plotMonths(i)+"month"),
  'linewidth',1,plotColors(i)); 

[dpb]

Oh, yeah...a color triplet must precede any named parameters or once a named parameter is used, everything after that must also use the names...either

hL(i)=plot(Date,SI_table.("SPI_"+plotMonths(i)+"month"),plotColors(i),'linewidth',1); 

or

hL(i)=plot(Date,SI_table.("SPI_"+plotMonths(i)+"month"),'color',plotColors(i),'linewidth',1); 

will work...read the doc carefully.

Answer 2

[Alberto Mora]

Have a look to XTrick and XTrickLabel

[BN]

Thank you, Do they work in subplots? I thought they act only in the plot. I don't know how to customize each subplot.