PLOTYY Label Vertical Axis

figure (7)
plotyy(x1-11100,y1,x2,y2, 'stairs', 'plot')

Is 'stairs' 'plot' really necessary? What do these represent in plotyy?

title('Force vs. Time')
xlabel('Time (s)'); 

 How would I label the left and right vertical axis?

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

'stairs' in that position instructs plotyy() to call stairs() plot for the first set of data. Use whichever plotting routine is appropriate for your data representation.

To label the two axes independently, record the output of plotyy()

ax = plotyy(x1-11100,y1,x2,y2, 'stairs', 'plot');

Then index result to specify which axis you want

ylabel(ax(1), 'Major Force');
ylabel(ax(2), '2 Star General Force');

[T]

perhaps I shold have used what was in the help menu,

 what is stairs and plot were replaced with function1 and function2 what then would this represent? It doesn't even show up on the graph. If it instructs plotyy() to call function1() plot for the first data set, how do I access it?

[Walter Roberson]

As the help says,

plotyy(X1,Y1,X2,Y2,FUN) uses the plotting function FUN
  instead of PLOT to produce each graph. FUN can be a
  function handle or a string that is the name of a plotting
  function, e.g. plot, semilogx, semilogy, loglog, stem,
  etc. or any function that accepts the syntax H = FUN(X,Y).
  For example
     plotyy(X1,Y1,X2,Y2,@loglog)  % Function handle
     plotyy(X1,Y1,X2,Y2,'loglog') % String

Make sure that you use the @ form if you are calling a local function; the string form will only work if the name of the function is known at the base workspace level (e.g. a .m file with the name exists). The function so called would have to contain calls to graphics routines such as line() to do the actual graphing.