How do I plot certain columns using xmgrace in the terminal?

Question

I want to write a bash script to automate the plotting of data, using a plotting tool called xmgrace, but I want to be able to select which columns are plotted.

Say in my data file I have 3 columns, with the x and y data in the 1st and 3rd columns. How do I plot x against y when the data is formatted this way?

I tried xmgrace -bxy [1:3] data but that didn't work, it said No block data read and treated the second column as the y values.

score 19 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 24 '13 at 23:59

19

The correct syntax for this kind of problem is

xmgrace -block file -bxy 1:3

This will

Read the file as a block file
Plot the 3rd column against the 1st column.

edited Jan 24 '13 at 23:59

abarnert

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answered Feb 24 '11 at 13:13

Daniel

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FYI, `-bxy 0:3` plots the 3rd column vs the row number. – Jorge Leitao Apr 09 '15 at 14:16
Also, for set types involving more than two columns, such as xydy (x,y and errorbars), the syntax is `xmgrace -block file -settype xydy -bxy 1:2:3`. – h k Jul 18 '17 at 15:19

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 20 '12 at 19:08

4

Another flexible way of accomplishing the same thing is to use awk or cut:

awk '{print $1,$3}' data | xmgrace -
cut -f1,3 data | xmgrace -

answered Jun 20 '12 at 19:08

mstringer

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How do I plot certain columns using xmgrace in the terminal?

2 Answers2