How To Create a Space Between Edge of a Plot and The Y-axis LineTick?

How Can I create a space between the edge of the right hand plot and the y-axis lineTick from the code below? That is, to seperate the plot edge from the right y-axis Tickline.

This code generates the figure in plot1. But the figure in plot2 is desired.

desired_azimuth = 272;
figure('position',[100 100 900 550])
hold on
yyaxis left
plot(range, pia_cumulative12191, 'LineWidth', 2.0, 'Color', 'k') % Set plot color to black
set(gca, 'FontName', 'Arial', 'FontWeight', 'bold', 'xlim', [30 60], 'ylim', [0 25], 'FontSize', 14, 'YColor', 'k', 'YMinorTick', 'on') % Set axis properties
xlabel('Range (km)', 'FontSize', 15)
ylabel('Cumulative PIA (dB/km)', 'FontSize', 15, 'Color', 'k') % Set label color to black
yyaxis right
plot(range, pia_ref_12191, 'LineWidth', 2.0, 'Color', 'b') % Set plot color to blue
set(gca, 'ylim', [-10 70], 'FontSize', 14, 'YColor', 'b', 'YMinorTick', 'on') % Set axis properties including minor ticks
ylabel('Reflectivity (dBZ)', 'FontSize', 15, 'Color', 'b') % Set label color to blue

line = xline([39.2 45.3], '--k', 'LineWidth', 2.0);
str = {'Region of', 'Melting Ice'};
text(40.5, 2.0, str, 'Color', 'black', 'FontSize', 15)
label1 = 'PIA';
label2 = 'Z_{Measured}';
legend(label1, label2, 'Interpreter', 'tex', 'Location', 'northwest', 'FontSize', 15, 'EdgeColor', 'k', 'FontWeight', 'bold'); % Set legend properties
title(['PIA and Reflectivity', ' | ', 'Azimuth: ', num2str(desired_azimuth), '^o', ' | ', 'Elevation: 0.7', '^o', ' | ', '12:19 UTC'], ...
    'FontSize', 15, 'FontWeight', 'bold', 'color', 'k');
grid on
set(gca, 'LineWidth', 2, 'Box', 'on') % Set edge box of the entire plot to bold
hold off

[vidyesh]

Adding the below line of code will not add a gap between the figure and ticks but it may help in addressing the issue:

set(gca,"TickDir",'out') 

Answer 1

[Rushikesh]

Hello @Tunde Adubi,

I can see that you aim to create a plot where the edge of the plotted data is visually distinct from the y-axis tick lines. Specifically, you want to display two separate y-axes on the plot. The first y-axis should function solely as a ruler, showing only the axis line and tick marks without any data labels. The second y-axis should include the axis line, tick marks, and labels, positioned at a distance from the first axis to ensure clear separation between the two.

You can achieve this by creating two axes on same plot. You can use first axes for displaying only ruler and plotting data. On you second axis you can plot ticks, labels and to shift it to say right direction you can modify ‘Position’ property of second axes.

Sample Code is given below:

% Sample data 
x = 1:10; 
y1 = rand(1, 10); % Data for the first y-axis 
y2 = rand(1, 10) * 100; % Data for the second y-axis 

% Create a figure 
figure; 

% Plot the first y-axis 
h1 = plot(x, y1, '-o', 'DisplayName', 'Data 1'); 

% Create a second axes, overlaying the first 
ax1 = gca; % Get handle to the first axes 
ax1.YTickLabel = {}; % Hide y-axis labels for the first axis 

ax2 = axes('Position', ax1.Position, ... % Overlay the second axes 
    'Color', 'none', ... % Make background transparent 
    'YColor', 'r', ... % Set color for the second y-axis 
    'XColor', 'none', ... % Hide x-axis of the second axes 
    'Box', 'off'); 

% Shift the second y-axis to the right 
ax2.Position(1) = ax2.Position(1) - 0.02; % Adjust this value to increase the gap 

% keeping both same 
ax1.YLim = [0, 1];  
ax2.YLim = [0, 1];   

% Ensure the first axes is on top 
uistack(ax1, 'top'); 

% Add legend 
legend([ax1.Children; ax2.Children], 'Location', 'best'); 

Above code is tested in MATLAB R2024a.

You can refer to MATLAB axes properties documentation attached below to understand different properties including ‘Position’ in more detail.

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/matlab.graphics.axis.axes-properties.html

You can make these changes on right side of y axis using 'yyaxis' function.

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/yyaxis.html

Let me know if this helps.

Answer 2

[Star Strider]

No data,m so I can’t run your code.

That aside, try this —

x = 0:0.1:10;
y = randn(size(x));

figure
plot(x,y)
grid
xlabel('X')
ylabel('Y')
title('Unpadded X')

figure
plot(x,y)
grid
xlim('padded')
xlabel('X')
ylabel('Y')
title('Padded X')

If you want the plot padded in both directions, use ‘axis('padded')’ —

figure
plot(x,y)
grid
axis('padded')
xlabel('X')
ylabel('Y')
title('Padded X & Y')

.