cla

Clear axes

Syntax

cla

cla(ax)

cla reset

cla(ax,'reset')

Description

cla deletes all graphics objects that have visible handles from the current axes. The handle is visible if the HandleVisibility property of the object is set to 'on'. The next plot added to the axes uses the first color and line style based on the ColorOrder and LineStyleOrder properties of the axes. If axes do not exist, then this command creates one.

cla(ax) deletes graphics objects from the axes, polar axes, or geographic axes specified by ax instead of the current axes.

cla reset deletes graphics objects from the current axes regardless of their handle visibility. It also resets axes properties to their default values, except for the Position and Units properties.

cla(ax,'reset') resets properties for the specified axes.

Examples

Clear Current Axes

Plot two sine waves. Then, clear the line plots from the axes.

x = linspace(0,2*pi);
y1 = sin(x);
plot(x,y1)

hold on
y2 = sin(2*x);
plot(x,y2)

cla

cla clears the line plots and resets the ColorIndex and LineStyleIndex properties of the axes to 1. Subsequent plots start from the beginning of the color order and line style order. For example, plot another sine wave.

y3 = sin(3*x);
plot(x,y3)
hold off

Clear Specific Axes

You can display a tiling of plots using the tiledlayout and nexttile functions. Call the tiledlayout function to create a 2-by-1 tiled chart layout. Call the nexttile function to create the axes objects ax1 and ax2. Add plots to both axes.

tiledlayout(2,1)
ax1 = nexttile;
surf(ax1,peaks)

ax2 = nexttile;
contour(ax2,peaks)

Clear the surface plot from the upper axes by specifying ax1 as an input argument to cla.

cla(ax1)

Now, reset all properties for the axes, including the camera properties that control the view, by using the optional input argument 'reset'.

cla(ax1,'reset')

Clear Axes and Reset All Axes Properties

Create a line plot and set the axis limits.

x = linspace(0,2*pi);
y = sin(x);
plot(x,y)
axis([0 5 -2 2])

Clear the line plot from the axes and reset all the axes properties to their default values. cla reset resets all properties of the current axes, except for the Position and Units properties.

cla reset

Input Arguments

ax — Target axes

any type of axes object | array of axes objects

Target axes, specified as one of these items:

• Any type of axes object, such as an Axes, PolarAxes, or GeographicAxes object

• An array of axes objects

If you do not specify the target axes, then cla clears the current axes (gca).

Algorithms

The cla command resets the ColorOrderIndex and LineStyleOrderIndex properties of the current axes to 1.

Version History

Introduced before R2006a

R2024a: Clear multiple axes at once

Clear multiple axes at once by specifying the ax argument as an array of axes objects.