Boxplot - Arrangement of box labels

I use the code below to right align the "X tick labels" of my boxplot and adjust the distance to the x axis. This works fine when the figure is created. However, after reopening (or exporting to another format) the distance to the x axis is changed to default (far away from the axis) while the right alignment is kept.

Does anyone know how to fix this issue?

boxplot(all_values, all_names, 'labelorientation', 'inline');

text_h = findobj(gca, 'Type', 'text');

for cnt = 1:length(text_h)
        set(text_h(cnt),'HorizontalAlignment', 'right');
        yshift=get(text_h(cnt), 'Position');
        yshift(2)=-5;
        set(text_h(cnt), 'Position', yshift);
end

saveas(gcf,'path/boxplot.fig');

[Oleg Komarov]

The default distance is NOT far away from the (x) axis. Are you sure you don't want to put a +5 instead of -5?

Using this example code I cannot reproduce your problem:

boxplot(rand(100,2), {'a','second'}, 'labelorientation', 'inline');

text_h = findobj(gca, 'Type', 'text');

set(text_h,{'HorizontalAlignment'}, {'right'});

yshift = get(text_h, 'Position');

yshift = cellfun(@(y) [y(1) y(2)+5 y(3)],yshift,'un',0);

set(text_h, {'Position'}, yshift);

saveas(gcf,'boxplot.fig');

Win 7 64, R2012a 64

[Hannes]

The default position from the axis is -40. If I run your code with y(2)+35 I get the labels where I would like to have them. If I close the figure on the screen and open the one that has been saved the distance is back at -40 (same problem as with my code). It does not seem to save the new label positions and it also doesn't export them.

I'm using R2010b on a Mac. Maybe the problem has to do with this...

[Oleg Komarov]

Actually I could not notice with a +5 but I do have the same problem and see my answer too.

Answer 1

[Oleg Komarov]

Problem NOT solved, but documented. It's a BUG: http://www.mathworks.co.uk/support/bugreports/details.html?rp=228710

[Hannes]

Thanks to both of you for taking your time!

Have a good weekend

Hannes

[Oleg Komarov]

I have not tried but you could try to paste text objects in the position of the labels and check if this keeps on happening.

Good weekend

Answer 2

[the cyclist]

I have two suggestions.

The first is to just try using print() function rather than saveas(), and to play around with different output formats within the command. I suspect that that is not going to solve your issue, as the primitive elements inside the guts of MATLAB are probably going to be the same. (Just guessing here.)

The second suggestion is to try the very nice FEX entry "export_fig":

http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/23629

It is generally much better at "what you see is what you get" between the screen image and the resulting file.

[Hannes]

I didn't mention that I tried all this including "export_fig". As you nicely word it, the problem may be hidden deeper within MATLAB ;)

Thank you anyway

Hannes

[the cyclist]

Hm. Are you able to include a highly distilled example of your code that illustrates the problem?

[Hannes]

Oleg's example reproduces the problem very nicely but only on my system as it seems.

Answer 3

[Kirsten]

anyone know how to fix this in the boxplot m-file? I make boxplots all the time and dealing with moving the labels so they aren't RIGHT ON TOP of the axis is making me crazy!