Exploded Bar plot (stacked)?

Is there functionality for "exploding" the stacked bars in a bar plot? I have data that can be visualized using the bar( x, y, 'stacked' ) method, but the y-axis values don't hold intuitive value. I think that my approach (below) may remedy this issue with a new plot design, but I'm curious if this MATLAB functionality already exists.

So if this were the result of plotting your data 'stacked':

Then this would be the exploded stacked plot, removing the need for a legend by using the y-axis:

% Stacked, conventional.
figure; bar( xdata, ydata, 'stacked' );

% Stacked, exploded. First, figure out the patch dimensions, then plot.
boxPatchXY  = cell( numGroups, numItems );
bufferY	= 0.125;
bufferX = 0.2;
minY    = 10 * bufferY;
minX    = 0.6 : 1 : numItems + 0.6;
maxX    = 1.4 : 1 : numItems + 1.4;
midY    = NaN( numGroups, 1 );
for group	= 1:numGroups
    groupData	= ydata( group, : );
    if group == 1
        minY    = minY + bufferY;
    else
        minY    = maxY + bufferY;
    end
    maxY    = max( groupData ) + minY;
    midY( group )	= ( minY + maxY ) / 2 ;
    for item	= 1:numItems
        startX  = minX( item );
        endX	= maxX( item );
        itemX	= vertcat( startX, startX, endX, endX, endX, startX );
        itemY	= vertcat( midY( group ), midY( group ) - groupData( item ) / 2,...
            midY( group ) - groupData( item ) / 2, midY( group ),...
            midY( group ) + groupData( item ) / 2, midY( group ) + groupData( item ) / 2 );
        boxPatchXY{ group, item }	= horzcat( itemX, itemY );
    end
end

boxPatchPlots   = gobjects( numel( boxPatchXY ), 1 );
for idx = 1:numel( boxPatchPlots )
    boxPatchPlots( idx ) = patch( boxPatchXY{ idx }( :, 1 ), boxPatchXY{ idx }( :, 2 ),...
        'FaceColor', barColors{ idx }, 'EdgeColor', barColors{ idx },...
        'Parent', aLaneColumns );
end

Answer 1

[Arthi Sathyamurthi]

Hello Dominik,

Currently we are not supporting 'explode' feature in the bar plot function. I have brought this issue to the notice of the concerned people and it might be considered for a future release.