Can HIST take parameters such as FaceColor and EdgeColor?

HIST only allows me to input data and number of bins. I would also like to be able to specify the color of the histogram and the line colors of the histogram. Currently, I have to create my histogram and then use FINDOBJ to get the handles to the patch objects before setting their color.

For example:

x = -2.9:0.1:2.9;

y = randn(10000,1);

hist(y,x)

h = findobj(gca,'Type','patch');

set(h,'FaceColor','r','EdgeColor','w')

This becomes more problematic when I have multiple histogram plots in one axes and I want each to be its own color.

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

As a workaround, you can use the following example code as a guide:

% Create some sample data

x = -2.9:0.1:2.9;

y = randn(10000,1);

% Exploit the use of HIST where we return data instead of a plot                                      

[n1,x1]=hist(y,x);

[n2,x2]=hist(y+6,x+6);

% Use the output of HIST to create BAR plots

% Note that this exploits the undocumented 'hist' option, used solely by HIST

% It is not recommended that you rely on this behavior, but rather you use it as a workaround

% Return handles on these calls so we can manipulate them later

h1=bar(x1,n1,'hist');

hold on

h2=bar(x2,n2,'hist');

% Now just modify the color of one of the BAR plots

set(h2,'facecolor','red')