Shanto Roy

I Explore Research, Tech, Travel, and Business. PhD Student @UHCS.

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In this post I have added example codes and a short explanation on how to draw line plots using latex. All codes and outputs are available in the Overleaf Document.

Required packages for plotting

\usepackage{pgfplots}
\usepackage{pgfplotstable}
\pgfplotsset{compat=1.7}
\usepackage{tikz}

A simple line plot

Code for a simple line plot in latex is as follows:

\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}[
	xlabel=put ur xlabel,
	ylabel=put ur ylabel,
	width=10cm,height=7cm,
    legend style={at={(0.0,.91)},anchor=west}
    ]

% Add values and attributes for the first plot
\addplot[color=red,mark=x] coordinates {
	(1, 7)
	(2, 8)
	(3, 9)
	(4, 10)
	(5, 11)
	(6, 12)
};

% Add values and attributes for the second plot
\addplot[color=blue,mark=*] coordinates {
	(1, 9)
	(2, 10)
	(3, 11)
	(4, 12)
	(5, 13)
	(6, 14)
};

\legend{Case 1,Case 2}
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}

You can define different axis attributes including the x-label, y-label, legend style or legend position, width, height, etc. within the [] block after \begin{axis}. Then use \addplot to generate a line plot. Include as many \addplot as the number of legends you want. Put line attributes within the [] and (x,y) value pairs within coordinates{};. Then add legends sequentially seperated by a comma within \legend{}.

If you want the plot as a figure, you need to put the whole code within \begin{figure}...\end{figure} environment:

\begin{figure}[!ht]
    \centering
    \begin{tikzpicture}
        \begin{axis}[domain=0:10,legend pos=outer north east]
        \addplot {sin(deg(x))}; 
        \addplot {cos(deg(x))}; 
        \legend{$\sin(x)$,$\cos(x)$,}
        \end{axis}
    \end{tikzpicture}
    \caption{Put your Caption}
    \label{fig:my_label}
\end{figure}

Plotting on Graph paper background

Use the following code to generate a graph-paper alike background for line plots:

\begin{tikzpicture}
  \begin{axis}
    [grid=both,
     % number of ticks in between grids, 9 ticks = 10 cells
     minor tick num=9,
     % define regular grid style with line width and color
     grid style={line width=.2pt, draw=black!10},
     % define major grid style with line width and color
     major grid style={line width=.4pt,draw=black!50},
     axis lines=middle,
     enlargelimits={abs=0.1},
     % define width and height
     width=12cm, height=9cm
    ]
    \addplot[domain=-5:5,samples=50,smooth,red] {sin(deg(pi*x))};
  \end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}

Subplotting

Put multiple plots within the \begin{subfigure}...\end{subfigure} and environment to put multiple plots as subfigures. You can also use \resizebox{\columnwidth}{!}{} environment for maintaining column width. Btw, do not forget to add the following packages beforehand:

\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{caption}
\usepackage{subcaption}

The following example has two subplots-

\begin{figure*}[!ht]
    \centering
    \resizebox{\columnwidth}{!}{
    \begin{subfigure}[pt]{0.45\linewidth}
    \begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}[
	xlabel=put ur xlabel,
	ylabel=put ur ylabel (\%),
	width=7cm,height=6cm,
    legend style={at={(0.0,.91)},anchor=west},
    yticklabel=\pgfmathprintnumber{\tick}\,\%
    ]
\addplot[color=red,mark=x] coordinates {
	(1, 7)
	(2, 8)
	(3, 9)
	(4, 10)
	(5, 11)
	(6, 12)
};

\addplot[color=blue,mark=*] coordinates {
	(1, 9)
	(2, 10)
	(3, 11)
	(4, 12)
	(5, 13)
	(6, 14)
};

\legend{Case1,Case2}
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\caption{Put your subcaption!!!}
\label{fig:sub1}
    \end{subfigure}\hspace{8mm}
    
    
    \begin{subfigure}[pt]{0.45\linewidth}
    \begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}[
	xlabel=put ur xlabel,
	ylabel=put ur ylabel (\%),
	width=7cm,height=6cm,
    legend style={at={(0.0,.91)},anchor=west},
    yticklabel=\pgfmathprintnumber{\tick}\,\%
    ]
\addplot[color=red,mark=x] coordinates {
	(1, 7)
	(2, 8)
	(3, 9)
	(4, 10)
	(5, 11)
	(6, 12)
};

\addplot[color=blue,mark=*] coordinates {
	(1, 9)
	(2, 10)
	(3, 11)
	(4, 12)
	(5, 13)
	(6, 14)
};

\legend{Case1,Case2}
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\caption{Put your subcaption!!!}
\label{fig:sub1}
    \end{subfigure}
    }
    
\caption{Put your Caption Here}
\end{figure*}

References

You can find a comprehensive list of Latex resources in the following post:

Latex Resources in a Nutshell

If you are a new Latex user, check out this post: 20 Most Common Mistakes Made by New Latex Users

You can find all Latex oriented posts of mine in: https://shantoroy.com/categories/#latex

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