cla — Clear the current axes in MATLAB and RunMat plotting.

cla clears only the active axes, leaving the rest of the figure unchanged. This matches MATLAB behavior for subplot and multi-axes workflows.

Syntax

ok = cla()

Returns

How cla works

• cla() clears the active axes.
• The current subplot selection determines which axes are cleared.
• Other axes in the same figure are left untouched.
• cla resets the line-style cycle for the cleared axes so subsequent plots start from the default style sequence again.

Does RunMat run cla on the GPU?

cla performs no provider dispatch; it clears the active axes from the plotting registry and renderer state.

GPU memory and residency

cla only mutates plotting state and does not affect array residency.

Examples

Clear only the active subplot

subplot(1, 2, 1);
plot(1:5, 1:5);
subplot(1, 2, 2);
plot(1:5, [5 4 3 2 1]);
cla();

Expected output:

% only the second subplot is cleared

Clear the current axes and plot again

plot(1:5, 1:5);
cla();
plot(1:5, [1 2 3 4 5]);

Expected output:

% the second plot starts on an empty axes

Using cla with coding agents

Open a RunMat example with live inputs, then ask the agent to explain how cla changes the result.

FAQ

Related Plotting functions

Open-source implementation

Unlike proprietary runtimes, every RunMat function is open-source. Read exactly how cla is executed, line by line, in Rust.

• View the source for cla in Rust on GitHub
• Learn how the RunMat runtime works
• Found a bug? Open an issue with a minimal reproduction.

About RunMat

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