How to efficiently animate plots in MATLAB?

Question

I wrote a simple code below for animating plots, but they tend to be rather computationally-intensive, taking entire seconds longer than intended:

function animplot(t,f,ymin,ymax,dt,num_iters)
h = plot(0,0); % set initial handle for first iteration
tic % start timer
for i=2:num_iters
    delete(h);
    h = plot(t,f(t-dt*i),'LineWidth',2,'color','b');
    axis([min(t) max(t) ymin ymax]); pause(1/num_iters)
end
toc % end timer, return time elapsed since 'tic'
end

Replacing 1/num_iters with dT = T / num_iters, and setting T = 1, computation time for 1000 iterations is 6+ secs (rather than 1). Sample animation for t = 0:.01:2*pi; f = @(t)sin(t); dt = .05; num_iters = 1000

Any more efficient methods of animating in this manner?

Answer 1

A significantly more efficient code, adapted per solution in related inquiry:

function  animplot(t,f,ymin,ymax,dt,num_iters,T)
% ANIMPLOT(t,f,ymin,ymax,dt,num_iters) -- f must be defined w/ handle, 
% e.g. f = @(t)sin(t); default T = 5, num_iters = 500, dt = .05,
% (ymax - ymin) = 1.4*range.
switch nargin
    case 6; T = 5;
    case 5; T = 5; num_iters = 500;
    case 4; T = 5; num_iters = 500; dt = .05;
    case 2; T = 5; num_iters = 500; dt = .05; 
            ymin = 1.2*min(f(t)) - max(f(t))/5;
            ymax = 1.2*max(f(t)) - min(f(t))/5;
end

dT = T/num_iters; % set pause interval
h = plot(0,0,'LineWidth',2,'color','b'); % set initial handle
set(h, 'Xdata',t, 'Ydata', f(t));        % initialize curve plot
axis([min(t) max(t) ymin ymax]);
tic % start timer
for i=2:num_iters
    pause(dT)
    set(h, 'Ydata', f(t-dt*i))
end
toc % end timer, return time elapsed since 'tic'
end

Note: num_iters serves primarily as animation 'resolution'; higher comes at expense of greater deviation from set T.