How can I plot an existing MATLAB plots all in one figure using SUBPLOT

I have four figures which are already plotted by another user, but I do not have the commands that he used to plot them. I am trying to plot them all in one figure using SUBPLOT command.

Answer 1

[Doug Hull]

One way is to obtain the ‘XData’ and ‘YData’ of all the children of the figures then plot them again in one figure using the SUBPLOT command.

The following example shows how to obtain the ‘XData’ and ‘YData’:

plot(1:10)  % for example this is your existing figure 
ha1 = get(gca,'Children') %this returns the children of the axes 
a1 = get(ha1,'Xdata') % obtain the XData 
b1 = get(ha1,'Ydata') % obtain the YData 
figure;   % new figure 
plot(a1,b1) %plot the data again

Similarly, obtain the XData and YData of all other figures then use SUBPLOT to plot them in one figure.

[Walter Roberson]

Instead of plotting the data again, copyobj() could be used.

Answer 2

[Doug Hull]

A more generic way to do this is to get the handles of the children of the axes you want to copy and reparent them. This will not cary over view information, but will get the information over. Works well for plots.

hf(1) = figure(1)
plot(peaks);

hf(2) = figure(2)
plot(membrane)

hf(3) = figure(3)

ha(1) = subplot(1,2,1);
ha(2) = subplot(1,2,2);

for i = 1:2

    hc  = get(hf(i),'children')
    hgc = get(hc, 'children');
    set(hgc, 'parent',ha(i));

end

[Francesca Pisani]

This does not work for me. I get error:

Error using matlab.ui.Figure/get

Invalid or deleted object.

Error in microctd_turb_20apr (line 653)

hc = get(hf(i),'children')

[Bruno Luong]

@Francesca Pisani this code runs fine on online server as showed here:

Do not close manually he figure when it still running.

hf(1) = figure(1)

hf = 
  Figure (1) with properties:

      Number: 1
        Name: ''
       Color: [1 1 1]
    Position: [671 558 577 433]
       Units: 'pixels'

  Show all properties

plot(peaks);

hf(2) = figure(2)

hf = 
  1×2 Figure array:

    Figure    Figure

plot(membrane)

hf(3) = figure(3)

hf = 
  1×3 Figure array:

    Figure    Figure    Figure

ha(1) = subplot(1,2,1);
ha(2) = subplot(1,2,2);

for i = 1:2
    
    hc  = get(hf(i),'children')
    hgc = get(hc, 'children');
    set(hgc, 'parent',ha(i));
    
end

hc = 
  Axes with properties:

             XLim: [0 50]
             YLim: [-8 10]
           XScale: 'linear'
           YScale: 'linear'
    GridLineStyle: '-'
         Position: [0.1300 0.1100 0.7750 0.8150]
            Units: 'normalized'

  Show all properties

hc = 
  Axes with properties:

             XLim: [0 35]
             YLim: [-0.4000 1]
           XScale: 'linear'
           YScale: 'linear'
    GridLineStyle: '-'
         Position: [0.1300 0.1100 0.7750 0.8150]
            Units: 'normalized'

  Show all properties

[Francesca Pisani]

Thank you, here it works, but if I apply this code to my need of creating a subplots with 4x2 figures it doesn't work. Please, if you could help me, I've just uploaded my question here https://it.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/2004122-how-to-get-subplots-made-of-a-group-of-already-existing-fig