Handle Graphics
What are handles? Matlab uses handles to point to all of the various graphical objects.
help plotNotice the mention of handles?
"PLOT returns a column vector of handles to LINE objects, one handle per line."Let's create a plot with multiple lines and then investigate the handles.
x = [0:.1:2; .5:.1:2.5; 1:.1:3]'*pi;
y = sin(x); y(:,2)=y(:,2)+3; y(:,3)=y(:,3)-2;
% without handles
figure
plot(x(:,1),y(:,1),'bx--','linewidth',2);
hold on
plot(x(:,2),y(:,2),'g','linewidth',2);
plot(x(:,3),y(:,3),'r','linewidth',2);
grid on
legend('0 shift','+3 shift','-2 shift')
% using handles
figure
h = plot(x,y);
grid on
legend('0 shift','+3 shift','-2 shift')
get(h(1))
set(h(1))
set(h(1),'linestyle','--','marker','x');
set(h,'linewidth',2);
Look in the ? menu and click on "Handle Graphics Property Browser" in the Contents section for a complete listing.
f = gcf a = gca