GNUPLOT
It's a command line driven plotting program
It can plot 2D, 3D plots of functions, data and
data fit
It's plotting engine can be used by third party
applications
Completely open source and under active
development since 1986
GNUPLOT Features
Plotting engine can be used from various programming
languages and by third party applications
Supports piping
Can be used interactively and well as in batch mode
using scripts
Can produce output directly on screen or in many
standard graphics file format
Capable of producing LATEX code that can be used
directly in LATEX documents
Plotting
plot [ initial x : final x ] function(x)
Plots function(x) with x ranging from initial x till final
x
set xlabel “label”
set ylabel “label”
set title “title”
set xrange [ intial : final ]
set yrange [ initial : final ]
Plotting
plot “data-file” using column#1:column#2, “data-file”
using column#1:column#3
plots the data-file using column#1 as x-axis and column#2,
column#3 as y-axis
plot function(x) with lines/points/steps/impulses
replot
Re-plots the graph
help command
Fitting
plot “data-file” using 1:2:3 with yerrorbars
f(x)=function(x;a,b,c....)
where, a,b,c... are parameters
fit f(x) “data-file” using 1:2:3 via a,b,c...
p f(x), “data-file” using 1:2:3 w yerr
Postscript Output
set term postscript eps enhanced color
set output “output-filename”
plot …............
Load / Save File
save “filename”
load “filename”
Parametric Plot
set parametric
set trange [ intial : final ]
y(t)=y_function(t)
x(t)=x_function(t)
plot x(t),y(t)
Polar Plot
set polar
set angle degrees/radians
plot f(t)
3D Plot
splot f(x,y)
set isosample #x,#y
sets the x and y coordinate sampling mesh density
set ticslevel 0
sets the zero of z-axis in x-y plane
set view rot_x, rot_z, scale, scale_z
sets the viewing angle
set hidden3d
sets the mesh opaque
3D Plot
set pm3d
draws colour mapped 3D plot
set palette defined (-3 “blue”, 0 “white”, 1
“red”)
splot … with pm3d
assigns colour to numerical values and plots
accordingly with colour gradient
3D data plotting
splot “data-file” using
column#1:column#2:column#3 with lines
set dgrid3d x_mesh, y_mesh
generates 3D grid graph from data
Definition of Function
Say f(x) = fa(x) when x conditional a
= fb(x) otherwise
f(x) = (x conditional a) ? fa(x) : fb(x)
If f(xa) is related to f( xb(xa) ) by a recursive
relation
f(xa) = g( f( xb(xa) ) )
Then the function can be defined recursively in
gnuplot. The recursive definition loop maybe
terminated using conditional statements
Example of Recursive Function
N! = N * (N-1)!
fac(x) = x*fac(x-1)
this is an infinite loop
To terminate the loop when n=0
fac(x) = (x==0) ? 1 : x*fac(x-1)
when n=0, fac(n)'s value is given by 1 ie, the function
immediately succeding '?', otherwise n*fac(n-1) is
evaluated
Since 'n' is integer
fac(x) = (int(x)==0)) ? 1.0 : int(x)*fac( int(x)-1.0 )
