plot automatically titled with plot object in matlab - matlab

Question

I would like to know if some of you know of a way to automatically title plots with the name of the object plotted
so that for intance when I plot supermatrix(5:10,:,2:3)
the title (or the legend ..) on the plot says "supermatrix(5:10,:,2:3)"
thanks

Answer 1

Is this for debugging purposes? If not then I suggest you tell us your overall motivation because someone might be able to suggest a more robust method, but this might get you started:
vname = #(x)inputname(1); %//from here: https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/newsreader/view_thread/251347
plot(supermatrix(5:10,:,2:3))
title(vname(supermatrix))
Although to be honest I cannot imagine why this would ever be useful

Answer 2

I think this does what you want and remains pretty flexible:
function h = plotwithtitle( plotstring, varargin )
argstoplot = evalin('caller', ['{', plotstring, '}']);
h = plot( argstoplot{:}, varargin{:} );
title(plotstring);
end
The following examples all work for me:
supermatrix=rand(10,10);
x=1:10;
y=rand(1,10);
plotwithtitle('supermatrix');
plotwithtitle('supermatrix(5:10,:)');
plotwithtitle('x, y');
plotwithtitle('x, y', '--r');
plotwithtitle('1:10', 'r');
plotwithtitle('rand(1,10)');

Answer 3

I've modified the function dfig originally created by F.Moisy for creating docked figures in order to have the command used for plotting show up in the figure name.
The idea is to read the last command in the command history and use that to generate the figure title.
function hh = dfig(varargin)
%DFIG Create docked figure window
% DFIG, by itself, creates a new docked figure window, and returns its
% handle.
%
% DFIG(H) makes H the current figure and docks it. If Figure H does not
% exist, and H is an integer, a new figure is created with handle H.
%
% DFIG(H, name, value,...) reads additional name-value pairs. See
% doc(figure) for available otions.
%
% DFIG will parse the command line input and use the text following dfig
% as figure name. E.g. calling dfig,plot(x(1:3),y(2:2:end)) results in
% the name "plot(x(1:3),y(2:2:end))"
% F. Moisy, moisy_at_fast.u-psud.fr
% Revision: 1.00, Date: 2007/09/11
% Modified (a lot) by Jonas
if nargin==0
h=figure; % create a new figure
else
% call figure with varargin
figure(varargin{:})
h = gcf;
end
if ~any(strcmp('name',varargin(1:2:end)))
% if no name has been supplied: try to use function call
javaHistory=com.mathworks.mlservices.MLCommandHistoryServices.getSessionHistory;
if ~isempty(javaHistory)
lastCommand = javaHistory(end).toCharArray';
funCall = regexp(lastCommand,'dfig\s*[,;]\s*(.*)$','tokens','once');
else
funCall = [];
end
if ~isempty(funCall)
if isnumeric(h)
set(h,'Name',[num2str(h),': ',funCall{1}],'NumberTitle','off')
else % HG2
h.Name = sprintf('%i: %s',h.Number,funCall{1});
h.NumberTitle = 'off';
end
end
end
set(h,'WindowStyle','docked'); % dock the figure
if nargout~=0 % returns the handle if requested
hh=h;
end