polarplot

Plot data in polar coordinates.

📝Syntax

polarplot(rho)
polarplot(theta, rho)
polarplot(theta, rho, LineSpec)
polarplot(..., propertyName, propertyValue, ...)
polarplot(ax, ...)
go = polarplot(...)

📥Input Arguments

Parameter	Description
theta	Angles in radians: vector or matrix.
rho	Radial coordinates: real numeric vector or matrix.
LineSpec	Line style, marker, and/or color: character vector or scalar string.
propertyName	Line property name: scalar string or row vector of characters.
propertyValue	Value assigned to the preceding line property.
ax	Target polar axes or axes object. A regular axes is initialized as a polar axes.

📤Output Arguments

Parameter	Description
go	Column vector of line graphics objects.

📄Description

polarplot(theta, rho) plots radius values rho at angles theta. Data angles are expressed in radians.

polarplot(rho) plots rho versus angles equally spaced from 0 to 2*pi. If rho is complex, angle(rho) is used as angle data and abs(rho) as radius data.

If rho is a matrix, each column is plotted as a separate line. A vector theta can be combined with a matrix rho when its length matches one dimension of rho.

The returned line objects keep polar samples in their ThetaData and RData properties. Cartesian XData and YData are managed by the polar renderer.

Axis limit and tick helper functions use degrees for angular values: thetalim, thetaticks, and thetaticklabels.

When no polar axes is current, polarplot creates one. If a regular axes is supplied, it is initialized as a polar axes.

💡Examples

Plot a polar curve with a line specification.

theta = linspace(0, 2*pi, 200);
rho = 1 + 0.5*cos(4*theta);
polarplot(theta, rho, 'r-', 'LineWidth', 2);

Plot several radius columns on the same polar axes.

theta = linspace(0, 2*pi, 100)';
rho = [sin(theta).^2, cos(theta).^2];
go = polarplot(theta, rho);
rticks([0 0.5 1]);
thetaticks(0:45:360);

Use an explicit polar axes.

f = figure();
ax = polaraxes('Parent', f);
polarplot(ax, linspace(0, pi, 50), linspace(0, 2, 50), 'o-');
rlim(ax, [0 2]);
thetalim(ax, [0 180]);

🕔Version History

Version	Description
2.0.0	initial version

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