plot (graph)

Graph plot

Syntax

plot(G)
example
plot(G,LineSpec)
example
plot(___,Name,Value)
example
plot(ax,___)
h = plot(___)
example

Description

plot(G) plots the nodes and edges in graph G.

plot(G,LineSpec) sets the line style, marker symbol, and color. For example, plot(G,'-or') uses red circles for the nodes and red lines for the edges.

example

plot(___,Name,Value) uses additional options specified by one or more Name-Value pair arguments using any of the input argument combinations in previous syntaxes. For example, plot(G,'Layout','circle') plots a circular ring layout of the graph, and plot(G,'XData',X,'YData',Y,'ZData',Z) specifies the (X,Y,Z) coordinates of the graph nodes.

plot(ax,___) plots into the axes specified by ax instead of into the current axes (gca). The option, ax, can precede any of the input argument combinations in previous syntaxes.

example

h = plot(___) returns a GraphPlot object. Use this object to inspect and adjust the properties of the plotted graph.

Examples

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Plot Graph

Open Script

Create a graph using a sparse adjacency matrix, and then plot the graph.

n = 10;
A = delsq(numgrid('L',n+2));
G = graph(A,'OmitSelfLoops')

G = 

  graph with properties:

    Edges: [130×2 table]
    Nodes: [75×0 table]

plot(G)

Plot Graph Using Line Specifier

Open Script

Create and plot a graph. Specify the LineSpec input to change the Marker, NodeColor, and/or LineStyle of the graph plot.

G = graph(bucky);
plot(G,'-.dr','NodeLabel',{})

Plot Graph with Specified Layout

Open Script

Create a directed graph, and then plot the graph using the 'force' layout.

G = digraph(1,2:5);
G = addedge(G,2,6:15);
G = addedge(G,15,16:20)

G = 

  digraph with properties:

    Edges: [19×1 table]
    Nodes: [20×0 table]

plot(G,'Layout','force')

Custom Graph Node Coordinates

Open Script

Create a weighted graph.

s = [1 1 1 1 1 2 2 7 7 9 3 3 1 4 10 8 4 5 6 8];
t = [2 3 4 5 7 6 7 5 9 6 6 10 10 10 11 11 8 8 11 9];
weights = [1 1 1 1 3 3 2 4 1 6 2 8 8 9 3 2 10 12 15 16];
G = graph(s,t,weights)

G = 

  graph with properties:

    Edges: [20×2 table]
    Nodes: [11×0 table]

Plot the graph using custom coordinates for the nodes. The x-coordinates are specified using XData, the y-coordinates are specified using YData, and the z-coordinates are specified using ZData. Use EdgeLabel to label the edges using the edge weights.

x = [0 0.5 -0.5 -0.5 0.5 0 1.5 0 2 -1.5 -2];
y = [0 0.5 0.5 -0.5 -0.5 2 0 -2 0 0 0];
z = [5 3 3 3 3 0 1 0 0 1 0];
plot(G,'XData',x,'YData',y,'ZData',z,'EdgeLabel',G.Edges.Weight)

View the graph from above.

view(2)

Edge Line Width Proportional to Edge Weight

Open Script

Create a weighted graph.

s = [1 1 1 1 2 2 3 4 4 5 6];
t = [2 3 4 5 3 6 6 5 7 7 7];
weights = [50 10 20 80 90 90 30 20 100 40 60];
G = graph(s,t,weights)

G = 

  graph with properties:

    Edges: [11×2 table]
    Nodes: [7×0 table]

Plot the graph, labeling the edges with their weights, and making the width of the edges proportional to their weights. Use a rescaled version of the edge weights to determine the width of each edge, such that the widest line has a width of 5.

LWidths = 5*G.Edges.Weight/max(G.Edges.Weight);
plot(G,'EdgeLabel',G.Edges.Weight,'LineWidth',LWidths)

Label Graph Nodes and Edges

Open Script

Create a directed graph, and then plot the graph with custom labels for the nodes and edges.

s = [1 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 6 7];
t = [2 3 4 5 6 5 7 6 7 8 8 8];
G = digraph(s,t)

G = 

  digraph with properties:

    Edges: [12×1 table]
    Nodes: [8×0 table]

eLabels = {'x' 'y' 'z' 'y' 'z' 'x' 'z' 'x' 'y' 'z' 'y' 'x'};
nLabels = {'{0}','{x}','{y}','{z}','{x,y}','{x,z}','{y,z}','{x,y,z}'};
plot(G,'Layout','force','EdgeLabel',eLabels,'NodeLabel',nLabels)

Adjust GraphPlot Properties

Open Script

Create and plot a directed graph. Specify an output argument to plot to return a handle to the GraphPlot object.

s = [1 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 5 5 6 7 7 8 8 9 10 11];
t = [2 3 10 4 12 4 5 6 6 7 9 8 10 9 11 12 11 12];
G = digraph(s,t)

G = 

  digraph with properties:

    Edges: [18×1 table]
    Nodes: [12×0 table]

p = plot(G)

p = 

  GraphPlot with properties:

     NodeColor: [0 0.4470 0.7410]
    MarkerSize: 4
        Marker: 'o'
     EdgeColor: [0 0.4470 0.7410]
     LineWidth: 0.5000
     LineStyle: '-'
     NodeLabel: {1×12 cell}
     EdgeLabel: {}
         XData: [2.5000 1.5000 2.5000 2 3 2 3 3 2.5000 4 3.5000 2.5000]
         YData: [7 6 6 5 5 4 4 3 2 3 2 1]
         ZData: [0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0]

  Use GET to show all properties

Change the color and marker of the nodes.

p.Marker = 's';
p.NodeColor = 'r';

Increase the size of the nodes.

p.MarkerSize = 7;

Change the line style of the edges.

p.LineStyle = '--';

Change the x and y coordinates of the nodes.

p.XData = [2 4 1.5 3.5 1 3 1 2.1 3 2 3.1 4];
p.YData = [3 3 3.5 3.5 4 4 2 2 2 1 1 1];

Input Arguments

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`G` — Input graph
`graph` object | `digraph` object

Input graph, specified as either a graph or digraph object. Use the graph function to create an undirected graph or the digraph function to create a directed graph.

For more information, see graph or digraph.

Example: G = graph(1,2)

Example: G = digraph([1 2],[2 3])

`LineSpec` — Line style, marker symbol, and color
character vector

Line style, marker symbol, and color, specified as a character vector of symbols. The symbols can appear in any order, and you can omit one or more of the characteristics. If you omit the line style, then the plot shows solid lines for the graph edges.

Example: '--or' uses red circle node markers and red dashed lines as edges.

Example: 'r*' uses red asterisk node markers and solid red lines as edges.

Symbol	Line Style
`-`	Solid line (default)
`--`	Dashed line
`:`	Dotted line
`-.`	Dash-dot line

Symbol	Marker
`o`	Circle
`+`	Plus sign
`*`	Asterisk
`.`	Point
`x`	Cross
`s`	Square
`d`	Diamond
`^`	Upward-pointing triangle
`v`	Downward-pointing triangle
`>`	Right-pointing triangle
`<`	Left-pointing triangle
`p`	Pentagram
`h`	Hexagram

Symbol	Color
`y`	yellow
`m`	magenta
`c`	cyan
`r`	red
`g`	green
`b`	blue
`w`	white
`k`	black

`ax` — Axes object
object

Axes object. If you do not specify an axes object, then plot uses the current axes (gca).

Name-Value Pair Arguments

Specify optional comma-separated pairs of Name,Value arguments. Name is the argument name and Value is the corresponding value. Name must appear inside single quotes (' '). You can specify several name and value pair arguments in any order as Name1,Value1,...,NameN,ValueN.

Example: p = plot(G,'EdgeColor','r','NodeColor','k','LineStyle','--')

The graph properties listed here are only a subset. For a complete list, see GraphPlot Properties.

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`'ArrowSize'` — Arrow size
positive value

Note: ArrowSize only affects the display of directed graphs created using digraph.

Arrow size, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'ArrowSize' and a positive value in point units. The default value of ArrowSize is 7 for graphs with 100 or fewer nodes, and 4 for graphs with more than 100 nodes.

Example: 15

`'EdgeAlpha'` — Transparency of graph edges
`0.5` (default) | scalar value between `0` and `1` inclusive

Transparency of graph edges, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'EdgeAlpha' and a scalar value between 0 and 1 inclusive. A value of 1 means fully opaque and 0 means completely transparent (invisible).

Example: 0.25

`'EdgeCData'` — Color data of edge lines
vector

Color data of edge lines, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'EdgeCData' and a vector with length equal to the number of edges in the graph. The values in EdgeCData map linearly to the colors in the current colormap, resulting in different colors for each edge in the plotted graph.

`'EdgeColor'` — Edge color
`[0 0.4470 0.7410]` (default) | RGB triplet or color name | `'flat'` | `'none'`

Edge color, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'EdgeColor' and one of these values:

'none' — Edges are not drawn.
'flat' — Color of each edge depends on the value of EdgeCData.
RGB triplet or a color name — Edges use the specified 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.
Long Name Short Name RGB Triplet

'yellow' 'y' [1 1 0]

'magenta' 'm' [1 0 1]

'cyan' 'c' [0 1 1]

'red' 'r' [1 0 0]

'green' 'g' [0 1 0]

'blue' 'b' [0 0 1]

'white' 'w' [1 1 1]

'black' 'k' [0 0 0]

Long Name	Short Name	RGB Triplet
`'yellow'`	`'y'`	`[1 1 0]`
`'magenta'`	`'m'`	`[1 0 1]`
`'cyan'`	`'c'`	`[0 1 1]`
`'red'`	`'r'`	`[1 0 0]`
`'green'`	`'g'`	`[0 1 0]`
`'blue'`	`'b'`	`[0 0 1]`
`'white'`	`'w'`	`[1 1 1]`
`'black'`	`'k'`	`[0 0 0]`

Example: plot(G,'EdgeColor','r') creates a graph plot with red edges.

`'EdgeLabel'` — Edge labels
`{}` (default) | vector | cell array of character vectors

Edge labels, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'EdgeLabel' and a numeric vector or cell array of character vectors. The length of EdgeLabel must be equal to the number of edges in the graph. By default EdgeLabel is an empty cell array (no edge labels are displayed).

Example: {'A', 'B', 'C'}

Example: [1 2 3]

Example: plot(G,'EdgeLabel',G.Edges.Weight) labels the graph edges with their weights.

`'Layout'` — Graph layout method
`'auto'` (default) | `'circle'` | `'force'` | `'layered'` | `'subspace'` | `'force3'` | `'subspace3'`

Graph layout method, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'Layout' and one of the options in the table. The table also lists compatible name-value pairs to further refine each layout method. See the layout reference page for more information on these layout-specific name-value pairs.

Option	Description	Name-Value Pairs
`'auto'` (default)	Automatic choice of layout method based on the size and structure of the graph.	—
`'circle'`	Circular layout. Places the graph nodes on a circle centered at the origin with radius 1.	—
`'force'`	Force-directed layout [1]. Uses attractive forces between adjacent nodes and repulsive forces between distant nodes.	`'Iterations'` `'XStart'` `'YStart'`
`'layered'`	Layered node layout [2], [3], [4]. Places the graph nodes into a set of layers, revealing hierarchical structure. By default the layers progress downwards (the arrows of a directed acyclic graph point down).	`'Direction'` `'Sources'` `'Sinks'` `'AssignLayers'`
`'subspace'`	Subspace embedding node layout [5]. Plots the graph nodes in a high-dimensional embedded subspace, and then projects the positions back into 2-D. By default the subspace dimension is either 100 or the total number of nodes, whichever is smaller.	`'Dimension'`
`'force3'`	3-D force-directed layout.	`'Iterations'` `'XStart'` `'YStart'` `'ZStart'`
`'subspace3'`	3-D subspace embedding layout.	`'Dimension'`

Example: plot(G,'Layout','force3','Iterations',10)

Example: plot(G,'Layout','subspace','Dimension',50)

Example: plot(G,'Layout','layered')

`'LineStyle'` — Line style
`'-'` (default) | `'--'` | `':'` | `'-.'` | `'none'`

Line style, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'LineStyle' and one of the line styles listed in this table.

Character(s)	Line Style	Resulting Line
`'-'`	Solid line
`'--'`	Dashed line
`':'`	Dotted line
`'-.'`	Dash-dotted line
`'none'`	No line	No line

`'LineWidth'` — Edge line width
`0.5` (default) | positive value

Edge line width, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'LineWidth' and a positive value in point units.

Example: 0.75

`'Marker'` — Node marker symbol
`'o'` (default) | character vector

Node marker symbol, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'Marker' and one of the character vectors listed in this table. The default is to use circular markers for the graph nodes.

Value	Description
`'o'`	Circle
`'+'`	Plus sign
`'*'`	Asterisk
`'.'`	Point
`'x'`	Cross
`'square'` or `'s'`	Square
`'diamond'` or `'d'`	Diamond
`'^'`	Upward-pointing triangle
`'v'`	Downward-pointing triangle
`'>'`	Right-pointing triangle
`'<'`	Left-pointing triangle
`'pentagram'` or `'p'`	Five-pointed star (pentagram)
`'hexagram'` or `'h'`	Six-pointed star (hexagram)
`'none'`	No markers

Example: '+'

Example: 'diamond'

`'MarkerSize'` — Node marker size
positive value

Node marker size, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'MarkerSize' and a positive value in point units. The default value of MarkerSize is 4 for graphs with 100 or fewer nodes, and 2 for graphs with more than 100 nodes.

Example: 10

`'NodeCData'` — Color data of node markers
vector

Color data of node markers, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'NodeCData' and a vector with length equal to the number of nodes in the graph. The values in NodeCData map linearly to the colors in the current colormap, resulting in different colors for each node in the plotted graph.

`'NodeColor'` — Node color
`[0 0.4470 0.7410]` (default) | RGB triplet or color name | `'flat'` | `'none'`

Node color, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'NodeColor' and one of these values:

'none' — Nodes are not drawn.
'flat' — Color of each node depends on the value of NodeCData.
RGB triplet or a color name — Nodes use the specified 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.
Long Name Short Name RGB Triplet

'yellow' 'y' [1 1 0]

'magenta' 'm' [1 0 1]

'cyan' 'c' [0 1 1]

'red' 'r' [1 0 0]

'green' 'g' [0 1 0]

'blue' 'b' [0 0 1]

'white' 'w' [1 1 1]

'black' 'k' [0 0 0]

Long Name	Short Name	RGB Triplet
`'yellow'`	`'y'`	`[1 1 0]`
`'magenta'`	`'m'`	`[1 0 1]`
`'cyan'`	`'c'`	`[0 1 1]`
`'red'`	`'r'`	`[1 0 0]`
`'green'`	`'g'`	`[0 1 0]`
`'blue'`	`'b'`	`[0 0 1]`
`'white'`	`'w'`	`[1 1 1]`
`'black'`	`'k'`	`[0 0 0]`

Example: plot(G,'NodeColor','k') creates a graph plot with black nodes.

`'NodeLabel'` — Node labels
node IDs (default) | vector | cell array of character vectors

Node labels, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'NodeLabel' and a numeric vector or cell array of character vectors. The length of NodeLabel must be equal to the number of nodes in the graph. By default NodeLabel is a cell array containing the node IDs for the graph nodes:

For nodes without names (that is, G.Nodes does not contain a Name variable), the node labels are the values unique(G.Edges.EndNodes) contained in a cell array.
For named nodes, the node labels are G.Nodes.Name'.

Example: {'A', 'B', 'C'}

Example: [1 2 3]

Example: plot(G,'NodeLabel',G.Nodes.Name) labels the nodes with their names.

`'XData'` — x-coordinate of nodes
vector

Note: XData and YData must be specified together so that each node has a valid (x,y) coordinate. Optionally, you can also specify ZData for 3-D coordinates.

x-coordinate of nodes, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'XData' and a vector with length equal to the number of nodes in the graph.

`'YData'` — y-coordinate of nodes
vector

Note: XData and YData must be specified together so that each node has a valid (x,y) coordinate. Optionally, you can also specify ZData for 3-D coordinates.

y-coordinate of nodes, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'YData' and a vector with length equal to the number of nodes in the graph.

`'ZData'` — z-coordinate of nodes
vector

Note: XData and YData must be specified together so that each node has a valid (x,y) coordinate. Optionally, you can also specify ZData for 3-D coordinates.

z-coordinate of nodes, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'ZData' and a vector with length equal to the number of nodes in the graph.

Output Arguments

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`h` — Graph plot
`GraphPlot` object

Graph plot, returned as an object. For more information, see GraphPlot.

More About

References

[1] Fruchterman, T., and E. Reingold. "Graph Drawing by Force-directed Placement." Software — Practice & Experience. Vol. 21 (11), 1991, pp. 1129–1164.

[2] Gansner, E., E. Koutsofios, S. North, and K.-P Vo. "A Technique for Drawing Directed Graphs." IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering. Vol.19, 1993, pp. 214–230.

[3] Barth, W., M. Juenger, and P. Mutzel. "Simple and Efficient Bilayer Cross Counting." Journal of Graph Algorithms and Applications. Vol.8 (2), 2004, pp. 179–194.

[4] Brandes, U., and B. Koepf. "Fast and Simple Horizontal Coordinate Assignment." LNCS. Vol. 2265, 2002, pp. 31–44.

[5] Y. Koren. "Drawing Graphs by Eigenvectors: Theory and Practice." Computers and Mathematics with Applications. Vol. 49, 2005, pp. 1867–1888.

Documentation

plot (graph)

Syntax

Description

Examples

Plot Graph

Plot Graph Using Line Specifier

Plot Graph with Specified Layout

Custom Graph Node Coordinates

Edge Line Width Proportional to Edge Weight

Label Graph Nodes and Edges

Adjust GraphPlot Properties

Input Arguments

G — Input graphgraph object | digraph object

LineSpec — Line style, marker symbol, and colorcharacter vector

ax — Axes objectobject

Name-Value Pair Arguments

'ArrowSize' — Arrow sizepositive value

'EdgeAlpha' — Transparency of graph edges0.5 (default) | scalar value between 0 and 1 inclusive

'EdgeCData' — Color data of edge linesvector

'EdgeColor' — Edge color[0 0.4470 0.7410] (default) | RGB triplet or color name | 'flat' | 'none'

'EdgeLabel' — Edge labels{} (default) | vector | cell array of character vectors

'Layout' — Graph layout method'auto' (default) | 'circle' | 'force' | 'layered' | 'subspace' | 'force3' | 'subspace3'

'LineStyle' — Line style'-' (default) | '--' | ':' | '-.' | 'none'

'LineWidth' — Edge line width0.5 (default) | positive value

'Marker' — Node marker symbol'o' (default) | character vector

'MarkerSize' — Node marker sizepositive value

'NodeCData' — Color data of node markersvector

'NodeColor' — Node color[0 0.4470 0.7410] (default) | RGB triplet or color name | 'flat' | 'none'

'NodeLabel' — Node labelsnode IDs (default) | vector | cell array of character vectors

'XData' — x-coordinate of nodesvector

'YData' — y-coordinate of nodesvector

'ZData' — z-coordinate of nodesvector

Output Arguments

h — Graph plotGraphPlot object

More About

References

See Also

Introduced in R2015b

MATLAB Documentation

Other Documentation

Support

`G` — Input graph
`graph` object | `digraph` object

`LineSpec` — Line style, marker symbol, and color
character vector

`ax` — Axes object
object

`'ArrowSize'` — Arrow size
positive value

`'EdgeAlpha'` — Transparency of graph edges
`0.5` (default) | scalar value between `0` and `1` inclusive

`'EdgeCData'` — Color data of edge lines
vector

`'EdgeColor'` — Edge color
`[0 0.4470 0.7410]` (default) | RGB triplet or color name | `'flat'` | `'none'`

`'EdgeLabel'` — Edge labels
`{}` (default) | vector | cell array of character vectors

`'Layout'` — Graph layout method
`'auto'` (default) | `'circle'` | `'force'` | `'layered'` | `'subspace'` | `'force3'` | `'subspace3'`

`'LineStyle'` — Line style
`'-'` (default) | `'--'` | `':'` | `'-.'` | `'none'`

`'LineWidth'` — Edge line width
`0.5` (default) | positive value

`'Marker'` — Node marker symbol
`'o'` (default) | character vector

`'MarkerSize'` — Node marker size
positive value

`'NodeCData'` — Color data of node markers
vector

`'NodeColor'` — Node color
`[0 0.4470 0.7410]` (default) | RGB triplet or color name | `'flat'` | `'none'`

`'NodeLabel'` — Node labels
node IDs (default) | vector | cell array of character vectors

`'XData'` — x-coordinate of nodes
vector

`'YData'` — y-coordinate of nodes
vector

`'ZData'` — z-coordinate of nodes
vector

`h` — Graph plot
`GraphPlot` object