A problem with multiple columns in legend

Hi all,

I just made the following lines, simply I cannot make a multiple column legend.

If anyone knows how to deal with this, i would be very thankful!

Thanks in advance.

figure 
bar(randn(4)) 
[xx,yy] = legend({'a','b','c','d'}, 'box','off','NumColumns', 4)

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

You cannot get multiple legend columns when you request the output of the legend icons.

[xx] = legend({'a','b','c','d'}, 'box','off','NumColumns', 4)

[Creatlee]

Thanks for the answer.

By the way, is there any way to have both outputs?

Or simply there is no need to have the second output when multiple columns are considered?

[Walter Roberson]

The code actively chooses backwards compatibility if there is more than one output argument. That causes the legend to be built diffrently.

Answer 2

[Fred]

But I need to increase the size of my MarkerSizes in my legend AND use two columns. Is there any way to do this?

%MWE of legend column and icon modification problem

close all, clearvars

x = 1:5; y = x.^2; %some data

figure

hold on

h = [scatter(x,5*x,200,'blue','filled','s'); ...

scatter(x,y,200,'red','filled','d')];

lgd = legend(h,{'Line','Quadratic'},'Location','Northwest');

lgd.NumColumns = 2; %want 2 columns for legend

figure

hold on

h = [scatter(x,5*x,200,'blue','filled','s'); ...

scatter(x,y,200,'red','filled','d')];

[lgd,icons] = legend(h,{'Line','Quadratic'},'Location','Northwest');

icons(3).Children.MarkerSize = 20; %want bigger MarkerSize for legend

icons(4).Children.MarkerSize = 20;

figure

hold on

h = [scatter(x,5*x,200,'blue','filled','s'); ...

scatter(x,y,200,'red','filled','d')];

[lgd,icons] = legend(h,{'Line','Quadratic'},'Location','Northwest');

icons(3).Children.MarkerSize = 20; %want bigger MarkerSize for legend

icons(4).Children.MarkerSize = 20;

lgd.NumColumns = 2; %want 2 columns for legend

% But I cannot have both. In fact, using [lgd,icons] makes 2 columns

% impossible