figure — Create or select plotting figures in MATLAB and RunMat.

figure creates a new plotting figure or selects an existing one as current. With no arguments (or 'next') it allocates a fresh handle; passing a positive numeric handle selects that figure, creating it if needed. figure also accepts figure property/value pairs such as 'Name', 'NumberTitle', 'Visible', and 'Color'. Handle selection, creation, and property assignment behavior follow MATLAB semantics.

Syntax

fig = figure()
fig = figure(h)
fig = figure(property, value, ...)
fig = figure(h, property, value, ...)

Inputs

Returns

Errors

How figure works

• figure() creates a new figure and returns its numeric handle.
• figure(n) selects figure n. If that handle does not exist yet, RunMat creates it.
• figure('next') creates a new figure instead of selecting an existing one.
• figure('Property', value, ...) creates a fresh figure and applies the requested figure properties.
• figure(n, 'Property', value, ...) selects or creates figure n and applies the requested figure properties.
• The selected figure becomes the target for subsequent plotting commands such as plot, subplot, gca, clf, and hold.

Options

• 'Name' sets the figure window name and can be inspected later with get(f, 'Name').
• 'NumberTitle' accepts logical values or MATLAB-style 'on'/'off' strings.
• 'Visible' accepts logical values or MATLAB-style 'on'/'off' strings. Hidden figures keep their graphics state but do not open or update interactive windows until made visible again.
• 'Color' and 'BackgroundColor' accept exact MATLAB color letters, full color names such as 'black', or RGB triples, and update the figure background color.

Does RunMat run figure on the GPU?

figure performs no provider dispatch. GPU-resident arrays passed to later plotting calls may still remain on device when the renderer supports that path.

GPU memory and residency

figure only updates plotting state and returns a host-side numeric handle. It does not affect array residency.

Examples

Create a fresh figure

f = figure()

Expected output:

% f is a positive numeric figure handle

Create another figure with the explicit 'next' selector

f1 = figure();
f2 = figure("next")

Expected output:

% f2 is a different figure handle from f1

Select a specific figure handle

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

Expected output:

% plotting now targets figure 3

Create a named figure with MATLAB-style property pairs

f = figure('Name', 'demo', 'NumberTitle', 'off', 'Visible', 'off');
plot(1:5, [1 4 2 5 3]);

Expected output:

% f is a figure handle whose Name, NumberTitle, and Visible properties are set

Using figure with coding agents

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

FAQ

Related Plotting functions

More plotting resources

• Styling plots and axes
• Plot replay and export
• Complete plotting guide

Open-source implementation

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

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

About RunMat

RunMat is an open-source runtime that executes MATLAB-syntax code blazing on any GPU. It is licensed under the Apache 2.0 license.

• RunMat automatically optimizes your math for GPU execution on Apple, Nvidia, and AMD hardware. No code changes needed. Simulations that took hours now take minutes.
• Start running code in seconds. RunMat runs in the browser, on the desktop, or from the CLI. No license server, no IT ticket.

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