Adding a scatter of points in different colour to a boxplot

I would like to add the mean value of each subject (n=9) to my boxplot but for each subject I would like to use a different colour.

Does anyone know how to do this?

I managed to put the points but all of them appear in same colour. Here is my code:

x = abs(randn(9,1));
y = abs(randn(9,1));
group = [    ones(size(x));
2 * ones(size(y))];
boxplot([x; y],group)
h = boxplot([x;y],group)
set(h,{'linew'},{2})
set(gca,'XTickLabel', {'X'; 'Y'})
allData = {x;y};
h = boxplot([allData{:}],group);
set(h, 'linewidth' ,2)
set(gca,'XTickLabel', {'X'; 'Y'})
hold on 
xCenter = 1:numel(allData);
spread=0.2;
for i = 1:numel(allData)
plot(rand(size(allData{i}))*spread -(spread/2) + xCenter(i), allData{i}, 'mo','linewidth', 2)
end

[dpb]

yes

[DM]

Could you please provide a hint how to it?

[dpb]

Oh. That wasn't the question asked... :)

[dpb]

Use scatter instead of plot

[Adam Danz]

dpb gave you the same suggestion I suggested ~4 hrs earlier. It must be a good suggestion :)

Answer 1

[Adam Danz]

The code in the question is from this answer.

To use different colors for each group of points, you can plot the points within a loop or you can use scatter() which allows you to assign a color for each point.

It looks like you tried the loop method but you're using the same color on each iteration.

Here's what you need to add/change,

colors = jet(numel(allData)); 
for i = 1:numel(allData)
    plot(rand(size(allData{i}))*spread -(spread/2) + xCenter(i), allData{i}, 'o','linewidth', 2, 'Color', colors(i,:))
end

To use different colors for each point within a group, use scatter()

colors = jet(numel(allData{i}));
for i = 1:numel(allData)
    scatter(rand(size(allData{i}))*spread -(spread/2) + xCenter(i), allData{i}, ...
        80, colors, 'filled')
end

[DM]

Thanks a lot for your answer. I tried the loop you suggested but I have different colour in the two boxplots.

What I would like to do is to have 9 different colours in the X boxplot and the corresponding 9 colours in Y boxplot. The X and Y plot is data from pre and post surgery and I would like to plot the data for each patient in different colour.

x = abs(randn(9,1));
y = abs(randn(9,1));
group = [    ones(size(x));
2 * ones(size(y))];
boxplot([x; y],group)
h = boxplot([x;y],group)
set(h,{'linew'},{2})
set(gca,'XTickLabel', {'X'; 'Y'})
allData = {x;y};
h = boxplot([allData{:}],group);
set(h, 'linewidth' ,2)
set(gca,'XTickLabel', {'X'; 'Y'})
hold on 
xCenter = 1:numel(allData);
spread=0.2;
colors = jet(numel(allData)); 
for i = 1:numel(allData)
    plot(rand(size(allData{i}))*spread -(spread/2) + xCenter(i), allData{i}, 'o','linewidth', 2, 'Color', colors(i,:))
end

[Adam Danz]

I see.

I've updated my answer.

[DM]

Now it works perfectly. Thanks a lot :)