polarscatter — Create scatter charts in polar coordinates.

polarscatter converts angular/radial point data to cartesian scatter coordinates, marks the active axes as polar, and preserves the original ThetaData and RData on returned scatter handles.

Syntax

ps = polarscatter(theta, rho)
ps = polarscatter(theta, rho, sz)
ps = polarscatter(theta, rho, sz, c)
ps = polarscatter(___, mkr)
ps = polarscatter(___, 'filled', Name, Value)
ps = polarscatter(pax, ___)

Inputs

Returns

Errors

How polarscatter works

• All eight integer classes are accepted for coordinates, marker sizes, and numeric color data before the explicit floating renderer boundary; integer table-variable selectors remain structural.
• polarscatter(theta, rho) interprets theta values as radians and requires theta and rho to have compatible element counts.
• Vector theta with matrix rho, matrix theta with vector rho, and matching theta/rho matrices create one scatter object per matrix column.
• polarscatter(theta, rho, sz) accepts scalar, vector, or matrix marker-size data. Matrix sizes are sliced by series when theta/rho expands to multiple scatter objects.
• polarscatter(theta, rho, sz, c) accepts the same positional color forms as scatter, including color names, RGB triplets, scalar color values, and RGB matrices.
• Marker strings, the filled flag, and common scatter name/value options share the parser used by scatter.
• The returned value is a scalar scatter handle for one series or a row-vector of scatter handles for multiple series.
• get(h, 'ThetaData') and get(h, 'RData') return the stored polar source coordinates. Setting either property recomputes the cartesian XData and YData used by the renderer.
• The target axes are switched to polar mode with equal x/y scaling and symmetric cartesian limits based on the largest radius.

Options

• Use polarscatter(ax, theta, rho, ...) to target existing axes.
• Use marker symbols such as 'o', '+', and 'x' after the size/color arguments.
• Use hold on before additional polarscatter calls to overlay more polar scatter objects on the same axes.
• Use set(h, ...) on returned handles to update scatter properties after plotting.

Examples

Create a polar scatter chart

theta = linspace(0, 2*pi, 20);
rho = abs(sin(theta));
h = polarscatter(theta, rho);

Expected output:

% h is a scatter handle with ThetaData and RData

Use filled markers with sizes and colors

theta = pi/4:pi/4:2*pi;
rho = [19 6 12 18 16 11 15 15];
sz = 100*[6 15 20 3 15 3 6 40];
c = [1 2 2 2 1 1 2 1];
polarscatter(theta, rho, sz, c, 'filled');

Create multiple scatter series from a matrix

theta = [0 pi/6 pi/2];
rho = [1 2; 2 4; 5 6];
ps = polarscatter(theta, rho, [50 100; 75 125; 100 150]);

Expected output:

% ps is a row-vector with one handle for each rho column

Using polarscatter with coding agents

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

FAQ

Related Plotting functions

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