Area outline color, specified as one of these values:

• 'none' — Do not draw the outline.

• 'flat' — Use colors from the axes colormap.

• RGB triplet or character vector of color name — Specify a custom color. The default RGB triplet value of [0 0 0] corresponds to black.

An RGB triplet is a three-element row vector whose elements specify the intensities of the red, green, and blue components of the color. The intensities must be in the range [0,1]; for example, [0.4 0.6 0.7]. This table lists the long and short color name options and the equivalent RGB triplet values.

Example: 'blue'

Example: [0 0 1]

Area fill color, specified as one of these values:

• 'flat' — Use colors from the axes colormap.

• 'none' — Do not use any color for the fill, which allows the background to show through.

• RGB triplet or character vector of color name — Specify a custom color.

An RGB triplet is a three-element row vector whose elements specify the intensities of the red, green, and blue components of the color. The intensities must be in the range [0,1]; for example, [0.4 0.6 0.7]. This table lists the long and short color name options and the equivalent RGB triplet values.

Edge transparency, specified as a scalar in the range [0,1]. A value of 1 is opaque and 0 is completely transparent. Values between 0 and 1 are semitransparent.

Example: a.EdgeAlpha = 0.5;

Face transparency, specified as a scalar in the range [0,1]. A value of 1 is opaque and 0 is completely transparent. Values between 0 and 1 are semitransparent.

Example: a.FaceAlpha = 0.5;

Line style, specified as one of the line styles listed in this table.

Area outline width, specified as a scalar numeric value in point units. One point equals 1/72 inch.

Example: 1.5

Data Types: single | double | int8 | int16 | int32 | int64 | uint8 | uint16 | uint32 | uint64

Sharp vertical and horizontal lines, specified as 'off' or 'on'.

If the associated figure has a GraphicsSmoothing property set to 'on' and a Renderer property set to 'opengl', then the figure applies a smoothing technique to plots. In some cases, this smoothing technique can cause vertical and horizontal lines to appear uneven in thickness or color. Use the AlignVertexCenters property to eliminate the uneven appearance.

• 'off' — Do not sharpen vertical or horizontal lines. The lines might appear uneven in thickness or color.

• 'on' — Sharpen vertical and horizontal lines to eliminate an uneven appearance.

Note:   You must have a graphics card that supports this feature. To see if the feature is supported, type opengl info. If it is supported, then the returned fields contain the line SupportsAlignVertexCenters: 1.

This property is read only.

Baseline object. For a list of baseline properties, see Baseline Properties.

Baseline location, specified as a numeric scalar value.

Baseline visibility, specified as one of these values:

• 'on' — Show the baseline.

• 'off' — Hide the baseline.

x-coordinates, specified as a vector. Alternatively, specify the x-coordinates using the input argument X to the area function. If you do not specify X, then area uses the indices of the values in YData as the x-coordinates.

XData and YData must have equal lengths.

Example: 1:10

Data Types: single | double | int8 | int16 | int32 | int64 | uint8 | uint16 | uint32 | uint64 | datetime | duration

y-coordinates, specified as a vector. Alternatively, specify the y-coordinates using the input argument Y to the area function.

XData and YData must have equal lengths.

Example: 1:10

Data Types: single | double | int8 | int16 | int32 | int64 | uint8 | uint16 | uint32 | uint64 | duration

Variable linked to XData, specified as a character vector containing a MATLAB workspace variable name. MATLAB evaluates the variable in the base workspace to generate the XData.

By default, there is no linked variable so the value is an empty character vector, ''. If you link a variable, then MATLAB does not update the XData values immediately. To force an update of the data values, use the refreshdata function.

Note:   If you change one data source property to a variable that contains data of a different dimension, you might cause the function to generate a warning and not render the graph until you have changed all data source properties to appropriate values.

Example: 'x'

Variable linked to YData, specified as a character vector containing a MATLAB workspace variable name. MATLAB evaluates the variable in the base workspace to generate the YData.

By default, there is no linked variable so the value is an empty character vector, ''. If you link a variable, then MATLAB does not update the YData values immediately. To force an update of the data values, use the refreshdata function.

Note:   If you change one data source property to a variable that contains data of a different dimension, you might cause the function to generate a warning and not render the graph until you have changed all data source properties to appropriate values.

Example: 'y'

Selection mode for XData, specified as one of these values:

• 'auto' — Use the indices of the values in YData.

• 'manual' — Use manually specified values. To specify the values, set the XData property or pass the input argument X to the area function.

State of visibility, specified as one of these values:

• 'on' — Display the area.

• 'off' — Hide the area without deleting it. You still can access the properties of an invisible area object.

Clipping of the area object to the axes limits, specified as one of these values:

• 'on' — Do not display parts of the area object that are outside the axes limits.

• 'off' — Display the entire area object, even if parts of it appear outside the axes limits. Parts of the area object might appear outside the axes limits if you create a plot, set hold on, freeze the axis scaling, and then create the area object so that it is larger than the original plot.

The Clipping property of the axes that contains the area object must be set to 'on', otherwise this property has no effect. For more information about the clipping behavior, see the Clipping property of the axes.

Note:   EraseMode has been removed. You can delete code that accesses the EraseMode property with minimal impact. If you were using EraseMode to create line animations, use the animatedline function instead.

Technique to draw and erase objects, specified as one of these values:

• 'normal' — Redraw the affected region of the display, performing the three-dimensional analysis necessary to correctly render all objects. This mode produces the most accurate picture, but is the slowest. The other modes are faster, but do not perform a complete redraw and, therefore, are less accurate.

• 'none' — Do not erase the object when it is moved or destroyed. After you erase the object with EraseMode,'none', it is still visible on the screen. However, you cannot print the object because MATLAB does not store any information on its former location.

• 'xor' — Draw and erase the object by performing an exclusive OR (XOR) with the color of the screen beneath it. This mode does not damage the color of the objects beneath it. However, the object color depends on the color of whatever is beneath it on the display.

• 'background' — Erase the object by redrawing it in the axes background color, or the figure background color if the axes Color property is 'none'. This damages objects that are behind the erased object, but properly colors the erased object.

MATLAB always prints figures as if the EraseMode property of all objects is set to 'normal'. This means graphics objects created with EraseMode set to 'none', 'xor', or 'background' can look different on screen than on paper. On screen, MATLAB mathematically combines layers of colors and ignores three-dimensional sorting to obtain greater rendering speed. However, MATLAB does not apply these techniques to the printed output. Use the getframe command or other screen capture applications to create an image of a figure containing nonnormal mode objects.

This property is read only.

Type of graphics object, returned as 'area'. Use this property to find all objects of a given type within a plotting hierarchy, for example, searching for the type using findobj.

User-specified tag to associate with the area, specified as a character vector. Tags provide a way to identify graphics objects. Use this property to find all objects with a specific tag within a plotting hierarchy, for example, searching for the tag using findobj.

Example: 'January Data'

Data Types: char

Data to associate with the area object, specified as any MATLAB data, for example, a scalar, vector, matrix, cell array, character array, table, or structure. MATLAB does not use this data.

To associate multiple sets of data or to attach a field name to the data, use the getappdata and setappdata functions.

Example: 1:100

Text used for the legend label, specified as a character vector. If you do not specify the text, then the legend uses a label of the form 'dataN'. The legend does not display until you call the legend command.

Example: 'Label Text'

This property is read only.

Control for including or excluding the area from a legend, returned as an Annotation object. Set the underlying IconDisplayStyle property to one of these values:

• 'on' — Include the area in the legend (default).

• 'off' — Do not include the area in the legend.

For example, exclude a stem chart from the legend.

p = plot(1:10,'DisplayName','Line Chart');
hold on
s = stem(1:10,'DisplayName','Stem Chart');
hold off
s.Annotation.LegendInformation.IconDisplayStyle = 'off';
legend('show')

Alternatively, you can control the items in a legend using the legend function. Specify the first input argument as a vector of the graphics objects to include.

p = plot(1:10,'DisplayName','Line Chart');
hold on
s = stem(1:10,'DisplayName','Stem Chart');
hold off
legend(p)

Parent of area, specified as an axes, group, or transform object.

The area has no children. You cannot set this property.

Visibility of area object handle in the Children property of the parent, specified as one of these values:

• 'on' — The area object handle is always visible.

• 'off' — The area object handle is invisible at all times. This option is useful for preventing unintended changes to the UI by another function. Set the HandleVisibility to 'off' to temporarily hide the handle during the execution of that function.

• 'callback' — The area object handle is visible from within callbacks or functions invoked by callbacks, but not from within functions invoked from the command line. This option blocks access to the area at the command-line, but allows callback functions to access it.

If the area object is not listed in the Children property of the parent, then functions that obtain object handles by searching the object hierarchy or querying handle properties cannot return it. This includes get, findobj, gca, gcf, gco, newplot, cla, clf, and close.

Hidden object handles are still valid. Set the root ShowHiddenHandles property to 'on' to list all object handles regardless of their HandleVisibility property setting.

Mouse-click callback, specified as one of these values:

• Function handle

• Cell array containing a function handle and additional arguments

• Character vector that is a valid MATLAB command or function, which is evaluated in the base workspace (not recommended)

Use this property to execute code when you click the area. If you specify this property using a function handle, then MATLAB passes two arguments to the callback function when executing the callback:

• The area object — You can access properties of the area object from within the callback function.

• Event data — This argument is empty for this property. Replace it with the tilde character (~) in the function definition to indicate that this argument is not used.

For more information on how to use function handles to define callback functions, see Callback Definition.

Note:   If the PickableParts property is set to 'none' or if the HitTest property is set to 'off', then this callback does not execute.

Example: @myCallback

Example: {@myCallback,arg3}

Context menu, specified as a uicontextmenu object. Use this property to display a context menu when you right-click the area. Create the context menu using the uicontextmenu function.

Note:   If the PickableParts property is set to 'none' or if the HitTest property is set to 'off', then the context menu does not appear.

Selection state, specified as one of these values:

• 'on' — Selected. If you click the area when in plot edit mode, then MATLAB sets its Selected property to 'on'. If the SelectionHighlight property also is set to 'on', then MATLAB displays selection handles around the area.

• 'off' — Not selected.

Display of selection handles when selected, specified as one of these values:

• 'on' — Display selection handles when the Selected property is set to 'on'.

• 'off' — Never display selection handles, even when the Selected property is set to 'on'.

Ability to capture mouse clicks, specified as one of these values:

• 'visible' — Can capture mouse clicks only when visible. The Visible property must be set to 'on'. The HitTest property determines if the area responds to the click or if an ancestor does.

• 'none' — Cannot capture mouse clicks. Clicking the area passes the click to the object below it in the current view of the figure window. The HitTest property of the area has no effect.

Response to captured mouse clicks, specified as one of these values:

• 'on' — Trigger the ButtonDownFcn callback of the area. If you have defined the UIContextMenu property, then invoke the context menu.

• 'off' — Trigger the callbacks for the nearest ancestor of the area that has a HitTest property set to 'on' and a PickableParts property value that enables the ancestor to capture mouse clicks.

Note:   The PickableParts property determines if the area object can capture mouse clicks. If it cannot, then the HitTest property has no effect.

Note:   HitTestArea has been removed. Use PickableParts instead.

Extents of clickable area for area, specified as one of these values:

• 'off' — Click the area plot to select it. This is the default value.

• 'on' — Click anywhere within the extent of the area plot to select it, that is, anywhere within the rectangle that encloses the area plot.

Example: 'off'

Callback interruption, specified as 'on' or 'off'. The Interruptible property determines if a running callback can be interrupted.

Note:   There are two callback states to consider: The running callback is the currently executing callback. The interrupting callback is a callback that tries to interrupt the running callback. Whenever MATLAB invokes a callback, that callback attempts to interrupt a running callback. The Interruptible property of the object owning the running callback determines if interruption is allowed. If interruption is not allowed, then the BusyAction property of the object owning the interrupting callback determines if it is discarded or put in the queue.

If the ButtonDownFcn callback of the area is the running callback, then the Interruptible property determines if it another callback can interrupt it:

• 'on' — Interruptible. Interruption occurs at the next point where MATLAB processes the queue, such as when there is a drawnow, figure, getframe, waitfor, or pause command.

  • If the running callback contains one of these commands, then MATLAB stops the execution of the callback at this point and executes the interrupting callback. MATLAB resumes executing the running callback when the interrupting callback completes. For more information, see Interrupt Callback Execution.

  • If the running callback does not contain one of these commands, then MATLAB finishes executing the callback without interruption.

• 'off' — Not interruptible. MATLAB finishes executing the running callback without any interruptions.

Callback queuing specified as 'queue' or 'cancel'. The BusyAction property determines how MATLAB handles the execution of interrupting callbacks.

Note:   There are two callback states to consider: The running callback is the currently executing callback. The interrupting callback is a callback that tries to interrupt the running callback. Whenever MATLAB invokes a callback, that callback attempts to interrupt a running callback. The Interruptible property of the object owning the running callback determines if interruption is allowed. If interruption is not allowed, then the BusyAction property of the object owning the interrupting callback determines if it is discarded or put in the queue.

If the ButtonDownFcn callback of the area tries to interrupt a running callback that cannot be interrupted, then the BusyAction property determines if it is discarded or put in the queue. Specify the BusyAction property as one of these values:

• 'queue' — Put the interrupting callback in a queue to be processed after the running callback finishes execution. This is the default behavior.

• 'cancel' — Discard the interrupting callback.

Creation callback, specified as one of these values:

• Function handle

• Cell array containing a function handle and additional arguments

• Character vector that is a valid MATLAB command or function, which is evaluated in the base workspace (not recommended)

Use this property to execute code when you create the area. Setting the CreateFcn property on an existing area has no effect. You must define a default value for this property, or define this property using a Name,Value pair during area creation. MATLAB executes the callback after creating the area and setting all of its properties.

If you specify this callback using a function handle, then MATLAB passes two arguments to the callback function when executing the callback:

• The area object — You can access properties of the area object from within the callback function. You also can access the area object through the CallbackObject property of the root, which can be queried using the gcbo function.

• Event data — This argument is empty for this property. Replace it with the tilde character (~) in the function definition to indicate that this argument is not used.

For more information on how to use function handles to define callback functions, see Callback Definition.

Example: @myCallback

Example: {@myCallback,arg3}

Deletion callback, specified as one of these values:

• Function handle

• Cell array containing a function handle and additional arguments

• Character vector that is a valid MATLAB command or function, which is evaluated in the base workspace (not recommended)

Use this property to execute code when you delete the area. MATLAB executes the callback before destroying the area so that the callback can access its property values.

If you specify this callback using a function handle, then MATLAB passes two arguments to the callback function when executing the callback:

• The area object — You can access properties of the area object from within the callback function. You also can access the area object through the CallbackObject property of the root, which can be queried using the gcbo function.

• Event data — This argument is empty for this property. Replace it with the tilde character (~) in the function definition to indicate that this argument is not used.

For more information on how to use function handles to define callback functions, see Callback Definition.

Example: @myCallback

Example: {@myCallback,arg3}

This property is read only.

Deletion status of area, returned as 'off' or 'on'. MATLAB sets the BeingDeleted property to 'on' when the delete function of the area begins execution (see the DeleteFcn property). The BeingDeleted property remains set to 'on' until the area no longer exists.

Check the value of the BeingDeleted property to verify that the area is not about to be deleted before querying or modifying it.