Scatter use different colors for data-points

I experimenting with the carbig dataset and want to use scatterplot3 to display some categories with different colors depending on how many cylinders the car got. How could I modify my code to work as expected? This is what I have tried:

load carbig
colors = [[1 0 0] [0 1 0] [0 0 1] [1 1 0] [1 0 1]];
c = [0 0 0]*length(Cylinders);

for i=1:length(Cylinders)
    if Cylinders(i) == 8
       c(i) = colors(5); 
    else
        c(i) = colors(Cylinders(i)-2);
    end   
end

scatter3(Horsepower,Weight, MPG,[],c, 'Marker','.')
xlabel('Horsepower')
ylabel('Weight')
zlabel('Miles per Gallon')
title('Car Database')

Answer 1

[dpb]

Close, but... :) (Always a "but", isn't there or wouldn't be asking a Q?) VBG

colors = [[1 0 0] [0 1 0] [0 0 1] [1 1 0] [1 0 1]];

makes a 1x15 row vector instead of an array of 5 color triplets; you're missing the semicolon between the entries to keep them from just being strung together in one long row--

colors = [[1 0 0]; [0 1 0]; [0 0 1]; [1 1 0]; [1 0 1]];

Then, don't need the loop to assign them, use optional output from unique to locate the cylinder size in the array and use as lookup into the colors table:

[~,~,ib]=unique(Cylinders);   % vector of each unique cylinder size index in Cylinders array
scatter3(Horsepower,Weight, MPG,[],colors(ib,:), 'Marker','.')  % scatter using lookup into colors

[Walter Roberson]

colors(ib, :) I would tend to suspect.

[dpb]

Right, I shoulda' cut 'n paste instead of just typing air code, Walter. Good catch. Fixed...

[Cliff Karlsson]

Thanks but I still have a hard time understanding [~,~,ib]=unique(Cylinders); what does the ~ do?

[dpb]

They just throw away the first two return values that we're not interested in for this application....but lets us get the third by being there for positional placeholders.

>> help punct
 Punctuation.
  .   Decimal point. 325/100, 3.25 and .325e1 are all the same.
  .   Array operations.  Element-by-element multiplicative operations

    .
    .
    .
    .

   ~   The tilde character can be used in function definitions to
       represent an input argument that is unused within the function.
       It can also be used to indicate that an output argument of a
       function call is to be ignored.  In this case, it must appear
       within [ ] and be separated by commas from any other arguments.

Look at the documentation for unique to understand what the outputs are and why it's the third (and only the third) that we're interested in here.