.. _graph:

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Graphical Data Analysis
****************************************

Visualizing data is critical to understanding it. What does a function,
:math:`f(x)`, do when :math:`x` is near zero or very large? Are there
any discontinuities? Where does :math:`f(x)` cross the :math:`x` axis?
If the data is stochastic, are there any outliers? Do we know enough
about our data to make data-driven decisions? We need to make effective
two and three-dimensional data plots so that we and others can
understand the data.

We made several simple plots in :ref:`matlab` to learn about the
features of MATLAB. Here we direct our attention specifically to
plotting. Remember that MATLAB has a large variety of plotting options,
so we can only cover the essentials of plotting.

.. topic:: Resources from MathWorks

   MathWorks’ website has a lot of documentation and videos related to
   plotting. Some recommendations follow.

   -  Video demonstrating how to use the Plot Tool
      [PlotToolVideo]_.

   -  An introductory video on how to use basic plotting
      functions [PlottingVideo]_.

   -  Documentation on how to create 2-D line
      plots [LinePlots]_.

   -  Documentation on 2-D and 3-D plots [Plots23D]_.

   -  Documentation on properties of plot
      lines [LineProps]_.

   -  MathWork’s *MATLAB Fundamentals* course has a good introduction to
      creating plots [FUNDAMENTALS]_.


.. index:: plotting data

.. only:: html

    **Contents:**

.. toctree::
   :maxdepth: 2

   plotEdit
   basicPlot
   fplot
   plot3D