How is it possible that Matlab still hasn't created a built in function that automatically inserts a title above a group of subplots?

It is 2017, and there still is no easy single command built in function that inserts a title above a group of subplots, even though a Million of users keep asking how to do that. How is that possible?

Answer 1

[Cedric]

When you start getting picky, you don't use SUBPLOT anymore because it is not that flexible. Instead you create an axes object that covers the full extent and use it for global titles/legends/etc, and you place your other axes by computing their position.

    figure( 'Units', 'normalized', 'Position', [0.2, 0.2, 0.6, 0.6], ...
        'Color', 'white' ) ;

    % - Bg axes and main title.
    bgAxes = axes( 'Position', [0, 0, 1, 1], 'XColor', 'none', 'YColor', 'none', ...
        'XLim', [0, 1], 'YLim', [0, 1] ) ;
    text( 0.5, 0.95, 'A Small Example', 'FontSize', 16, ...
        'HorizontalAlignment', 'center', 'FontWeight', 'bold' ) ;

    % - Positions.
    x = linspace( 0.05, 0.6, 4 ) ;
    w = 0.8 * diff( x(1:2) ) ;

    y = linspace( 0.07, 0.7, 3 ) ;
    h = 0.8 * diff( y(1:2) ) ;

    % - Headers for array still in bgAxes.
    for colId = 1 : numel( x )-1
        text( x(colId)+w/2, 0.03, sprintf( 'Label X%d', colId ), ...
            'HorizontalAlignment', 'center', 'FontWeight', 'bold' ) ;
    end
    for rowId = 1 : numel( y )-1
        text( 0.02, y(rowId)+h/2, sprintf( 'Label Y%d', rowId ), ...
            'HorizontalAlignment', 'center', 'Rotation', 90, 'FontWeight', 'bold' ) ;
    end

    % - Array of plots.
    for colId = 1 : numel( x )-1
        for rowId = 1 : numel( y )-1
            axes( 'Position', [x(colId), y(rowId), w, h] ) ;
            plot( sin( rand(1) * (1:10)), 'b' ) ;
            grid( 'on' ) ;
        end
    end

    % - Surface.
    axes( 'Position', [0.65, 0.45, 0.3, 0.45] ) ;
    [X, Y] = meshgrid( -5: .5 : 5 ) ;
    Z = Y.*sin(X) - X.*cos(Y) ;
    s = surf(X,Y,Z,'FaceAlpha',0.5) ;
    s.EdgeColor = 'none';

    % - Time series
    axes( 'Position', [0.05, 0.72, 0.515, 0.15] ) ;
    x = linspace( 0, 10, 100 ) ;
    plot( rand(size(x)) +  3 * sin(x) .* exp(-x/5), 'r' ) ;
    xlabel( 't [s]' ) ;
    ylabel( 'A [V]' ) ;
    grid( 'on' ) ;

    % - Barchart.
    axes( 'Position', [0.65, 0.05, 0.3, 0.3] ) ;
    histogram( randn(1000, 1) ) ;
    set( gca, 'Box', 'off' ) ;

[F S]

Thank you for your answer. That looks impressive.

The problem is, I am not picky. I just want to throw a bunch of plots into a figure and a title on top of them all with as little code involved as possible, and each time, it drives me nuts that there still is no built in function for that. I wonder why.

[Cedric]

Well, why getting nuts when you could just get picky instead? ;)

More seriously, I agree with you, there should be a builtin for this. In the mean time, you could take 3 minutes for building a function out of Jan's code (that passes varargin{:} to uicontrol so you can add project-specific arguments) and store it somewhere in MATLAB path.

[Jan]

+1: A really nice example.

Answer 2

[Jan]

Calm down.

I'm using text() or uicontrol('Style', 'Text') for this purpose. This is fast and easy. I'm not one of your million of users.

uicontrol('Style', 'Text', 'Units', 'Normalized', ...
          'Position', [0.3, 0.95, 0.4,0.05], ...
          'String', 'Super Title')

[EDITED] If want a function:

function H = SubTitle(String, varargin)
H = uicontrol('Style', 'Text', 'Units', 'Normalized', ...
              'Position', [0.3, 0.95, 0.4,0.05], ...
              'String', String, ...
              varargin{:});
end

Now you can append all parameter/value pairs, which are accepted by the uicontrol command: Other positions, font size, etc.

[F S]

Thank you.

I still wish there was a built in function - e.g. "suptitle", which apparently exists in some toolboxes - so I didn't have to copy paste the above solution every time I need it. Although you might think differently, I feel I wouldn't be the only user that benefited from it. Sorry for the blatant wording.

[Adam]

Why do you have to copy and paste it every time you need it?! You create the function and then you have a function. Whether it is a builtin or one you write yourself makes no difference then.

I have thousands of self-written functions to do little tasks within the repository I use. That is the whole point of a programming language, if something doesn't exist you just program it yourself and in a function so you can re-use it!

[Michael Wong]

Thank you Jan, the codes worked on my R2017a version.