gnuplot: plotting a file with 4 columns all on y-axis
curve, gnuplot
Solution
You can plot different columns of the same file like this:
plot 'file' using 0:1 with lines, '' using 0:2 with lines ...
(`...` means continuation). A couple of notes on this notation: `using` specifies which column to plot i.e. column 0 and 1 in the first `using` statement, the 0th column is a pseudo column that translates to the current line number in the data file. Note that if only one argument is used with `using` (e.g. `using n`) it corresponds to saying `using 0:n` (thanks for pointing that out mgilson).
If your Gnuplot version is recent enough, you would be able to plot all 4 columns with a for-loop:
set key outside
plot for [col=1:4] 'file' using 0:col with lines
Result:
Gnuplot can use column headings for the title if they are in the data file, e.g.:
min max mean std
24 31 29.0909 2.57451
12 31 27.2727 5.24129
14 31 26.1818 5.04197
22 31 27.7273 3.13603
22 31 28.1818 2.88627
and
set key outside
plot for [col=1:4] 'file' using 0:col with lines title columnheader
Results in:
Problem
I have a file that contains 4 numbers (min, max, mean, standard derivation) and I would like to plot it with gnuplot. Sample: ``` 24 31 29.0909 2.57451 12 31 27.2727 5.24129 14 31 26.1818 5.04197 22 31 27.7273 3.13603 22 31 28.1818 2.88627 ``` If I have 4 files with one column, then I can do: ``` gnuplot "file1.txt" with lines, "file2.txt" with lines, "file3.txt" with lines, "file4.txt" with lines ``` And it will plot 4 curves. I do not care about the x-axis, it should just be a constant increment. How do I plot them? I can't seem to find a way to have 4 curves with 1 file with 4 columns, just having a constantly incrementing x value.