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matlabplotmatlab-figurelegend

Make squared in legend instead of lines Matlab


Ditribution of Land use Types

I have the following code, which plots a 'map' using imagesc, and provides a legend, see output attached.

I am trying to replace the lines in the legend with solid squares. My attamps to far leave the lines and ad hollow squares (including a random square in the top left corner of the figure)

figure(6)
imagesc(lut)
title('Ditribution of Land use Types')
ylabel('Longitude')
xlabel('Latitude')
caxis([0, 7])
myColorMap = jet(6);

imagesc(lut, 'AlphaData', ~isnan(lut))
colormap(myColorMap);

L = line(ones(6), ones(6));
set(L, {'Color'}, num2cell(myColorMap, 2))

legend(L, {'Forest','Shrubland','Savanna','Grassland','Agricultural','Barron'})
set(L(:),'Marker','s')
grid on
ax = gca
ax.GridAlpha = .2
ax.XTick = [5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40];
ax.YTick = [5 10 15 20 25 30];
ax.XTickLabel = {'118^{o}E','123^{o}E','128^{o}E', '133^{o}E', '138^{o}E', '143^{o}E','148^{o}E', '153^{o}E'};
ax.YTickLabel = {'13^{o}S','18^{o}S','23^{o}S','28^{o}S','33^{o}S','38^{o}S'};
ax.TickLength =[0.0 0.0]

Solution

  • Use nan to create invisible data (thanks @matlatbgui), and set L with all needed properties for no line and filled square markers:

    % some arbitrary data:
    N = 30;
    lut = diag(1:N)*ones(N)+(diag(1:N)*ones(N)).';
    
    % coloring settings:
    caxis([0, 7])
    myColorMap = jet(6);
    
    % plotting:
    imagesc(lut, 'AlphaData', ~isnan(lut))
    colormap(myColorMap);
    
    % Setting the legend:
    L = line(nan(6), nan(6),'LineStyle','none'); % 'nan' creates 'invisible' data
    set(L, {'MarkerEdgeColor'}, num2cell(myColorMap, 2),...
        {'MarkerFaceColor'},num2cell(myColorMap, 2),... % setting the markers to filled squares
        'Marker','s'); 
    legend(L, {'Forest','Shrubland','Savanna','Grassland','Agricultural','Barron'})
    

    and you don't need your line:

    set(L(:),'Marker','s')
    

    legend