In a MatLab plot, when is 'box on' the default, and when is it not?

Two very similar figure codes furnich plots with and without a box. Fixed by setting 'nox on'

[Matt Fig]

According to the documentation, box off is the default. Show the calls that produce box on without you calling it.

[Euan]

figure

stairs(xt,Ft,'-k')
hold on

chsum=intvl*sum(ps);
ps=(1/chsum)*ps;

mu=sum(ps.*xp)*intvl;
dev=xp-mu*ones(nxp,1);
var=sum(ps.*dev.^2)*intvl;
sigfac=var/mu^2;
sig=sqrt(log(1+sigfac));
muln=log(mu)-0.5*sig^2;
mui=[muln-0.1:.05:muln+.1];
nmui=length(mui);
stemp0=log(stemp(2:nsamp+1)); % to match spachy
mudat=sum(stemp0.*spachy)/sum(spachy);
tdev=stemp0-mudat*ones(nsamp,1);
vardat=sum(spachy.*tdev.^2)/sum(spachy);

KScompare=logncdf(stemp,mudat,sqrt(vardat));
[h,p,ksstat,cv] = kstest(cum,[stemp,KScompare]);

KSdiff=abs(cum-KScompare);
plot(xp,logncdf(xp,mudat,sqrt(vardat)),'-k')%,'color',col(cind,1:3))
xlabel(' temperature ^oC')
ylabel('cumulative probability')
legend('data','lognormal model','Location','Southeast')

[Euan]

Thanks, Matt fig. that helps. But this code, with 'stairs', leaves box off:

figure
xlim([0 4])
% semilogx(MCrange,logncdf(MCrange,0,sigg),'-b')
hold on

stairs(renorm,(1/ndat)*[1:ndat],'-k')
hold on
plot(MCrange,logncdf(MCrange,0,sigg),'-b')
xlabel('normalised Mg/Ca')
ylabel('cumulative probability')
legend('normalised data','log-normal model','Location','Southeast')

[Matt Fig]

It would be helpful if you comment on a particular answer when addressing that answer. For example, under my answer, there is a box that says "Comment" for such use...

Answer 1

[Matt Fig]

I see you were not just using the PLOT function.

The STAIRS function sets the box to on (line 99 in stairs.m). Thus as I said, the default is box off, but this is a specialty function that sets box on.

Other specialized plotting functions may do the same thing.

[Matt Fig]

Euan comments:

Thanks, Matt fig. that helps. But this code, with 'stairs', leaves box off:

figure
xlim([0 4])
% semilogx(MCrange,logncdf(MCrange,0,sigg),'-b')
hold on

stairs(renorm,(1/ndat)*[1:ndat],'-k')
hold on
plot(MCrange,logncdf(MCrange,0,sigg),'-b')
xlabel('normalised Mg/Ca')
ylabel('cumulative probability')
legend('normalised data','log-normal model','Location','Southeast')

[Matt Fig]

The difference is that here you have set the hold state of the axes to on before calling STAIRS. If you look at the line of code I referenced above in stairs.m you will see this:

if ~hold_state
   set(cax,'NextPlot',next); 
   set(cax,'Box','on'); 
end

Thus STAIRS checks to see if the current axes is held. If not, it sets the box on.

All of this is interesting, but unless you want to memorize the behavior of all MATLAB's special plotting functions I recommend calling BOX the way you want it after any plotting takes place.