contour

Syntax

contour(z)

contour(x, y, z)

contour(hAxes, ...)

contour(..., cn)

Inputs

x, y, z

Range of the x, y, and z axes.

Type: double | integer

Dimension: scalar | vector | matrix

hAxes

Axis handle.

Type: double

Dimension: scalar

cn

Optional argument to set the number of contours, changing the number of colors in the colormap. The number of colors is limited to 32.

Type: integer

Dimension: scalar

Examples

contour example:

cla;
x=[0:0.15:2*pi];
y=x;
z=sin(x')*cos(y);
contour(z);

Figure 1. Contour plot

Number of contours example:

cla;
x=[0:0.15:2*pi];
y=x;
z=sin(x')*cos(y);
contour(z, 4);

Figure 2. Contour plot with four color levels

Comments

If there are no axes, one will be created first. If x and y are omitted, the index of the columns of z is used for x coordinates and the index of the rows of z is used for y coordinates. If the first argument of contour() is an axes handle, surfaces will be created in that axes.