Binscatter Properties
R2026bBinscatter appearance and behavior
Binscatter properties control the appearance and behavior of binned
scatter plots. By changing property values, you can modify aspects of the display. Use
dot notation to refer to a particular object and property:
h = binscatter(randn(1,100),randn(1,100)); N = h.NumBins h.NumBins = [3 3]
Bins
Number of bins, specified as a scalar or two-element vector [Nx
Ny].
If
NumBinsis specified as a two-element vector[Nx Ny], thenbinscatterusesNxbins in the x dimension andNybins in the y dimension.If
NumBinsis specified as a scalar, thenNxandNyare both set to the scalar value.
binscatter uses Nx and
Ny bins along the x and
y dimensions in the initial plot, when the axes are
not zoomed in. (The axes are not zoomed in when the
XLimMode and YLimMode properties
are both "auto".) When zooming,
binscatter adjusts the number of bins to maintain a
bin size such that the visible portion of the plot is approximately divided
into Nx-by-Ny bins.
The maximum number of bins in each dimension is 250. The default number of bins is computed based on the data size and standard deviation and does not exceed 100.
Example:
[10 20]
Data Types: single | double | int8 | int16 | int32 | int64 | uint8 | uint16 | uint32 | uint64
Selection mode for number of bins, specified as either
"auto" or "manual". With the
default value of "auto", the number of bins is computed
from the data according to Scott's rule,
[3.5*std(X(:))*numel(X)^(-1/4),
3.5*std(Y(:))*numel(Y)^(-1/4)].
If you specify the number of bins, then the value of
NumBinsMode is set to
"manual".
Toggle to show empty bins, specified as either "off" or
"on", or as numeric or logical 1
(true) or 0 (false). A value of
"on" is equivalent to true, and
"off" is equivalent to false. Thus, you can use the
value of this property as a logical value. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of
type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.
Specify "on" or true to color tiles in the plot that
fall within the bin limits, but have no data points.
This property is read-only.
Bin edges in x-dimension, returned as a vector.
Data Types: single | double | datetime | duration
This property is read-only.
Bin edges in y dimension, returned as a vector.
Data Types: single | double | datetime | duration
Data limits in x-dimension, specified as a two-element vector
[Xmin Xmax].
binscatter only displays data points that fall within the
specified data limits inclusively, .
Example:
[0 10]
Data Types: single | double | int8 | int16 | int32 | int64 | uint8 | uint16 | uint32 | uint64 | datetime | duration
Selection mode for data limits in x-dimension,
specified as "auto" or "manual". The
default value is "auto", so that the bin limits
automatically adjust to the data along the x-axis.
If you explicitly specify XLimits, then
XLimitsMode is automatically set to
"manual". In that case, specify
XLimitsMode as "auto" to rescale
the bin limits to the data.
Data limits in y-dimension, specified as a two-element vector
[Ymin Ymax].
binscatter only displays data points that fall within the
specified data limits inclusively, .
Example:
[0 10]
Data Types: single | double | int8 | int16 | int32 | int64 | uint8 | uint16 | uint32 | uint64 | datetime | duration
Selection mode for data limits in y-dimension,
specified as "auto" or "manual". The
default value is "auto", so that the bin limits
automatically adjust to the data along the y-axis.
If you explicitly specify YLimits, then
YLimitsMode is automatically set to
"manual". In that case, specify
YLimitsMode as "auto" to rescale
the bin limits to the data.
Data
x coordinates of data, specified as a vector.
Data Types: single | double | int8 | int16 | int32 | int64 | uint8 | uint16 | uint32 | uint64 | datetime | duration
Since R2026a
Control how the XData property is set, specified as one
of these values:
"auto"— TheXDataproperty updates automatically based on theSourceTableandXVariableproperties. This is the case when you pass a table to thebinscatterfunction."manual"— TheXDataproperty is set directly and does not update automatically. This is the case when you pass coordinate values as vectors to thebinscatterfunction.
y coordinates of data, specified as a vector.
Data Types: single | double | int8 | int16 | int32 | int64 | uint8 | uint16 | uint32 | uint64 | datetime | duration
Since R2026a
Control how the YData property is set, specified as one
of these values:
"auto"— TheYDataproperty updates automatically based on theSourceTableandYVariableproperties. This is the case when you pass a table to thebinscatterfunction."manual"— TheYDataproperty is set directly and does not update automatically. This is the case when you pass coordinate values as vectors to thebinscatterfunction.
This property is read-only.
Bin values, returned as a double matrix. The (i,j)th
entry in Values specifies the bin count for the bin whose
x edges are [XBinEdges(i),
XBinEdges(i+1)] and whose y edges are
[YBinEdges(j), YBinEdges(j+1)].
The bin inclusion scheme for the different numbered bins in
Values, as well as their relative orientation to the
x-axis and y-axis, is

For example, the (1,1) bin includes values that fall on
the first edge in each dimension. The last bin in the bottom right includes
values that fall on any of its edges.
Table Data
Since R2026a
Source table containing the data to plot, specified as a table or timetable.
Table variable containing the x-coordinates, specified
using one of the indexing schemes from the following table. The table
variable you specify can contain numeric, logical, datetime, or duration
values. When you set this property, MATLAB® updates the XData property.
| Indexing Scheme | Examples |
|---|---|
Variable name:
|
|
Variable index:
|
|
Variable type:
|
|
Table variable containing the y-coordinates, specified
using one of the indexing schemes from the following table. The table
variable you specify can contain numeric, logical, datetime, or duration
values. When you set this property, MATLAB updates the YData property.
| Indexing Scheme | Examples |
|---|---|
Variable name:
|
|
Variable index:
|
|
Variable type:
|
|
Color and Transparency
Since R2026b
Tile color, specified as one of these values:
"flat"— Tile colors vary according to the bin counts. By default, the colors come from theskycolormap (in the light theme) or theabysscolormap (in the dark theme). You can change the colormap by calling thecolormapfunction after plotting.Color name (or short name) — Tiles have a uniform color. Specify
"red"(or"r"),"green"(or"g"),"blue"(or"b"),"cyan"(or"c"),"magenta"(or"m"),"yellow"(or"y"),"black"(or"k"), or"white"(or"w").RGB triplet — Tiles have a uniform color. An RGB triplet is a three-element row vector whose elements specify the intensities of the red, green, and blue components of the color. The intensities must be in the range
[0,1]; For example,[0.4 0.6 0.7].Hexadecimal color code — Tiles have a uniform color. A hexadecimal color code is a string scalar or character vector that starts with a hash symbol (
#) followed by three or six hexadecimal digits, which can range from0toF. The values are not case sensitive. The color codes"#FF8800","#ff8800","#F80", and"#f80"are equivalent."none"— Tiles have no color.
This table lists the default color palettes for plots in the light and dark themes. You can use the colors from these palettes to match other plots.
| Palette | Palette Colors |
|---|---|
Before R2025a: Most plots use these colors by default. |
|
|
|
To get the RGB triplets and hexadecimal color codes for these palettes , use the
orderedcolors
and rgb2hex
functions. For example, get the RGB triplets for the "gem" palette and
convert them to hexadecimal color
codes.
RGB = orderedcolors("gem");
H = rgb2hex(RGB);Example:
binscatter(x,y,FaceColor="g") creates a binned scatter plot with green
tiles.
Example:
binscatter(x,y,FaceColor="#8B6CE0") creates a binned scatter plot with
purple tiles.
Example:
binscatter(x,y,FaceColor="flat") creates a binned scatter plot with tile
colors that vary according to the bin counts.
Since R2026b
Control how the FaceColor property is set, specified
as one of these values:
"auto"— MATLAB controls the value of theFaceColorproperty depending on the values of other properties:If the
FaceAlphaproperty of theBinscatterobject is a number, MATLAB sets theFaceColorproperty to"flat"and uses a colormap for the tile colors. This behavior is the default when you plot one data set with thebinscatterfunction. You can distinguish bin counts within the plot by the different tile colors.If the
FaceAlphaproperty of theBinscatterobject is"flat", MATLAB uses theSeriesIndexproperty of theBinscatterobject and theColorOrderproperty of theAxesobject to control the colors of the faces. All tiles have the same hue with different transparency levels. This behavior is the default when you plot multiple data sets, either by passing matrices of data or multiple table variables to thebinscatterfunction. You can distinguish one data set from another by the overall hue of each plot, and you can distinguish the bin counts within a plot by the different tile transparency levels.
"manual"— The value of theFaceColorproperty does not change regardless of theSeriesIndex,FaceAlpha, andColorOrderproperty values.
If you change the value of the FaceColor property
manually, MATLAB changes the value of the FaceColorMode
property to "manual".
Transparency of the tiles, specified as "flat" or as a scalar in the
range [0, 1].
"flat"— Vary the tile transparency according to the bin counts, where more opaque bins have higher counts. You can adjust the mapping of bin counts to the transparency levels using thealphaandalphamapfunctions. Specifying theFaceAlphavalue as"flat"can cause theFaceColorproperty to change to a uniform color for all the bins instead of using a colormap. This change happens when theFaceColorModeproperty of theBinscatterobject has a value of"auto"(the default value).Scalar in the range [0, 1] — Use the same transparency for all the tiles. A value of
1means fully opaque and0means completely transparent (invisible).
Example:
binscatter(x,y,FaceAlpha=0.5) creates a binned scatter plot with
semitransparent bins.
Example:
binscatter(x,y,FaceAlpha="flat") creates a binned scatter plot with
tile transparencies that vary according to the bin counts. (since R2026b)
Since R2026b
Series index, specified as a positive integer or
"none". This property affects the color of a plot as long
as the FaceAlpha property of the
Binscatter object is "flat" and
the FaceColorMode property has the default value of
"auto". Then you can use this property to change the
tile color so that it matches the color of another objects in the
axes.
By default, the SeriesIndex property of a
Binscatter object is a number that corresponds to
its order of creation, starting at 1. MATLAB uses the number to calculate indices for assigning colors when
you create multiple plots. The indices refer to the rows of the arrays
stored in the ColorOrder property of the axes. Any
objects in the axes that have the same SeriesIndex
number have the same color.
A SeriesIndex value of "none"
corresponds to a neutral color that does not participate in the indexing
scheme.
How Manual Color Assignment Overrides SeriesIndex
Behavior
To manually control tile color, set the FaceColor
property of the Binscatter object to a color value,
such as a color name or an RGB triplet.
When you manually set the tile color of a
Binscatter object, MATLAB sets the FaceColorMode property to
"manual" and disables automatic color selection
for that object. Your color persists regardless of the value of the
SeriesIndex property.
To enable automatic selection again, set the
SeriesIndex property to positive integer, and
set the FaceColorMode property to
"auto".
In some cases, MATLAB sets the SeriesIndex property to
0, which also disables automatic color
selection.
Legend
Text used by the legend, specified as a character vector. The text appears next to an icon of the binscatter.
Example: "Text Description"
For multiline text, create the character vector using
sprintf with the new line character
\n.
Example: sprintf("line one\nline two")
Alternatively, you can specify the legend text using the legend function.
If you specify the text as an input argument to the
legendfunction, then the legend uses the specified text and sets theDisplayNameproperty to the same value.If you do not specify the text as an input argument to the
legendfunction, then the legend uses the text in theDisplayNameproperty. The default value ofDisplayNameis one of these values.For numeric inputs,
DisplayNameis a character vector representing the variable name of the input data used to construct the histogram. If the input data does not have a variable name, thenDisplayNameis empty,"".For categorical array inputs,
DisplayNameis empty,"".
If the DisplayName property does not
contain any text, then the legend generates a character vector. The
character vector has the form "dataN", where
N is the number assigned to the binscatter object based on its location in the list of legend
entries.
If you edit interactively the character vector in an existing legend, then
MATLAB updates the DisplayName property to the
edited character vector.
Include the object in the legend, specified as an Annotation
object. Set the underlying IconDisplayStyle property of the
Annotation object to one of these values:
"on"— Include the object in the legend (default)."off"— Do not include the object in the legend.
For example, to exclude the Binscatter object named
obj from the legend, set the IconDisplayStyle
property to "off".
obj.Annotation.LegendInformation.IconDisplayStyle = "off";
Alternatively, you can control the items in a legend using the legend function. Specify the first input argument as a vector of the
graphics objects to include. If you do not specify an existing graphics object in the
first input argument, then it does not appear in the legend. However, graphics objects
added to the axes after the legend is created do appear in the legend. Consider creating
the legend after creating all the plots to avoid extra items.
Interactivity
State of visibility, specified as "on" or "off", or as
numeric or logical 1 (true) or
0 (false). A value of "on"
is equivalent to true, and "off" is equivalent to
false. Thus, you can use the value of this property as a logical
value. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.
"on"— Display the object."off"— Hide the object without deleting it. You still can access the properties of an invisible object.
Data tip content, specified as a DataTipTemplate object. You can
control the content that appears in a data tip by modifying the properties of the
underlying DataTipTemplate object. For a list of properties, see
DataTipTemplate Properties.
For an example of modifying data tips, see Create Custom Data Tips.
Note
The DataTipTemplate object is not returned by
findobj or findall, and it is not
copied by copyobj.
Context menu, specified as a ContextMenu object. Use this property to
display a context menu when you right-click the object. Create the context menu using
the uicontextmenu function.
Note
If the PickableParts property is set to
"none" or if the HitTest property is set
to "off", then the context menu does not appear.
Selection state, specified as "on" or "off", or as
numeric or logical 1 (true) or
0 (false). A value of "on"
is equivalent to true, and "off" is equivalent to
false. Thus, you can use the value of this property as a logical
value. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.
"on"— Selected. If you click the object when in plot edit mode, then MATLAB sets itsSelectedproperty to"on". If theSelectionHighlightproperty also is set to"on", then MATLAB displays selection handles around the object."off"— Not selected.
Display of selection handles when selected, specified as "on" or
"off", or as numeric or logical 1
(true) or 0 (false). A
value of "on" is equivalent to true, and
"off" is equivalent to false. Thus, you can
use the value of this property as a logical value. The value is stored as an on/off
logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.
"on"— Display selection handles when theSelectedproperty is set to"on"."off"— Never display selection handles, even when theSelectedproperty is set to"on".
Callbacks
Mouse-click callback, specified as one of these values:
Function handle
Cell array in which the first element is a function handle and subsequent elements are the arguments to pass to the callback function
String scalar or character vector containing a valid MATLAB command or function, which is evaluated in the base workspace (not recommended)
The ButtonDownFcn callback executes when you click the
Binscatter object.
For more information on how to use function handles to define callback functions, see Create Callbacks for Graphics Objects.
Note
If the PickableParts property is set to
"none" or if the
HitTest property is set to
"off", then this callback does
not execute.
Object creation function, specified as one of these values:
Function handle
Cell array in which the first element is a function handle and subsequent elements are the arguments to pass to the callback function
String scalar or character vector containing a valid MATLAB command or function, which is evaluated in the base workspace (not recommended)
For more information about specifying a callback as a function handle, cell array, string scalar, or character vector, see Create Callbacks for Graphics Objects.
This property specifies a callback function to execute when MATLAB creates the object. MATLAB initializes all property values before executing the
CreateFcn callback. If you do not specify the
CreateFcn property, then MATLAB executes a default creation function.
Setting the CreateFcn property on an existing component has no
effect.
If you specify this property as a function handle or cell array, you can access the object that is being created using the first argument of the callback function. Otherwise, use the gcbo function to access the object.
Object deletion function, specified as one of these values:
Function handle
Cell array in which the first element is a function handle and subsequent elements are the arguments to pass to the callback function
String scalar or character vector containing a valid MATLAB command or function, which is evaluated in the base workspace (not recommended)
For more information about specifying a callback as a function handle, cell array, string scalar, or character vector, see Create Callbacks for Graphics Objects.
This property specifies a callback function to execute when MATLAB deletes the object. MATLAB executes the DeleteFcn callback before destroying the
properties of the object. If you do not specify the DeleteFcn
property, then MATLAB executes a default deletion function.
If you specify this property as a function handle or cell array, you can access the object that is being deleted using the first argument of the callback function. Otherwise, use the gcbo function to access the object.
Callback Execution Control
Callback interruption, specified as "on" or "off", or as
numeric or logical 1 (true) or
0 (false). A value of "on"
is equivalent to true, and "off" is equivalent to
false. Thus, you can use the value of this property as a logical
value. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.
This property determines if a running callback can be interrupted. There are two callback states to consider:
The running callback is the currently executing callback.
The interrupting callback is a callback that tries to interrupt the running callback.
MATLAB determines callback interruption behavior whenever it executes a command that
processes the callback queue. These commands include drawnow, figure, uifigure, getframe, waitfor, and pause.
If the running callback does not contain one of these commands, then no interruption occurs. MATLAB first finishes executing the running callback, and later executes the interrupting callback.
If the running callback does contain one of these commands, then the
Interruptible property of the object that owns the running
callback determines if the interruption occurs:
If the value of
Interruptibleis set to"off", then no interruption occurs. Instead, theBusyActionproperty of the object that owns the interrupting callback determines if the interrupting callback is discarded or added to the callback queue.If the value of
Interruptibleis set to"on", then the interruption occurs. The next time MATLAB processes the callback queue, it stops the execution of the running callback and executes the interrupting callback. After the interrupting callback completes, MATLAB then resumes executing the running callback.
Note
Callback interruption and execution behave differently in these situations:
If the interrupting callback is a
DeleteFcn,CloseRequestFcn, orSizeChangedFcncallback, then the interruption occurs regardless of theInterruptibleproperty value.If the running callback is currently executing the
waitforfunction, then the interruption occurs regardless of theInterruptibleproperty value.If the interrupting callback is owned by a
Timerobject, then the callback executes according to schedule regardless of theInterruptibleproperty value.
Callback queuing, specified as "queue" or "cancel". The
BusyAction property determines how MATLAB handles the execution of interrupting callbacks. There are two callback
states to consider:
The running callback is the currently executing callback.
The interrupting callback is a callback that tries to interrupt the running callback.
The BusyAction property determines callback queuing behavior only
when both of these conditions are met:
Under these conditions, the BusyAction property of
the object that owns the interrupting callback determines how MATLAB handles the interrupting callback. Specify the
BusyAction property as one of these values:
"queue"— Put the interrupting callback in a queue to be processed after the running callback finishes execution."cancel"— Do not execute the interrupting callback.
Ability to capture mouse clicks, specified as one of these values:
"visible"— Capture mouse clicks only when visible. TheVisibleproperty must be set to"on". TheHitTestproperty determines if theBinscatterobject responds to the click or if an ancestor does."none"— Cannot capture mouse clicks. Clicking theBinscatterobject passes the click to the object behind it in the current view of the figure window. TheHitTestproperty of theBinscatterobject has no effect.
Response to captured mouse clicks, specified as "on" or
"off", or as numeric or logical 1
(true) or 0 (false). A
value of "on" is equivalent to true, and "off" is
equivalent to false. Thus, you can use the value of this property as
a logical value. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.
"on"— Trigger theButtonDownFcncallback of theBinscatterobject. If you have defined theContextMenuproperty, then invoke the context menu."off"— Trigger the callbacks for the nearest ancestor of theBinscatterobject that meets one of these conditions:HitTestproperty is set to"on".PickablePartsproperty is set to a value that enables the ancestor to capture mouse clicks.
Note
The PickableParts property determines if the
Binscatter object can capture mouse
clicks. If it cannot, then the HitTest property has no
effect.
This property is read-only.
Deletion status, returned as an on/off logical value of type matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.
MATLAB sets the BeingDeleted property to
"on" when the DeleteFcn callback begins
execution. The BeingDeleted property remains set to
"on" until the component object no longer exists.
Check the value of the BeingDeleted property to verify that the object is not about to be deleted before querying or modifying it.
Parent/Child
Parent, specified as an Axes object.
Children, returned as an empty GraphicsPlaceholder array or a
DataTip object array. Use this property to view a list of data tips
that are plotted on the chart.
You cannot add or remove children using the Children property. To add a
child to this list, set the Parent property of the
DataTip object to the chart object.
Visibility of the object handle in the Children property
of the parent, specified as one of these values:
"on"— Object handle is always visible."off"— Object handle is invisible at all times. This option is useful for preventing unintended changes by another function. SetHandleVisibilityto"off"to temporarily hide the handle during the execution of that function."callback"— Object handle is visible from within callbacks or functions invoked by callbacks, but not from within functions invoked from the command line. This option blocks access to the object at the command line, but permits callback functions to access it.
If the object is not listed in the Children property of the parent, then
functions that obtain object handles by searching the object hierarchy or querying
handle properties cannot return it. Examples of such functions include the
get, findobj, gca, gcf, gco, newplot, cla, clf, and close functions.
Hidden object handles are still valid. Set the root ShowHiddenHandles
property to "on" to list all object handles regardless of their
HandleVisibility property setting.
Identifiers
This property is read-only.
Type of graphics object, returned as 'binscatter'. Use
this property to find all objects of a given type within a plotting
hierarchy, such as searching for the type using findobj.
Object identifier, specified as a string scalar or character
vector. You can specify a unique Tag value to serve as an
identifier for an object. When you need access to the object elsewhere in your code, you
can use the findobj function to search for the object
based on the Tag value.
User data, specified as any MATLAB array. For example, you can specify a scalar, vector, matrix, cell array, character array, table, or structure. Use this property to store arbitrary data on an object.
If you are working in App Designer, create public or private properties in the app to share data instead of using the UserData property. For more information, see Share Data Within a Single App Designer App.
Version History
Introduced in R2017bIf you create multiple binned scatter plots, you can adjust the color and transparency of each plot by setting these properties:
FaceColor— Control the colors of the tiles.FaceAlpha— Set a uniform transparency level for all the tiles or vary the transparency according to the bin counts.SeriesIndex— Assign a different color to a binned scatter plot using the color palette stored in the axesColorOrderproperty.FaceColorMode— Control whether the tile colors update when you set theFaceAlphaandSeriesIndexproperties.
Specify the table data for a binned scatter plot by setting the
SourceTable, XVariable, and
YVariable properties.
Starting in R2020a, using the UIContextMenu property to
assign a context menu to a graphics object or UI component is not recommended. Use
the ContextMenu property instead. The property values are the
same.
There are no plans to remove support for the UIContextMenu
property at this time. However, the UIContextMenu property no
longer appears in the list returned by calling the get function
on a graphics object or UI component.
See Also
MATLAB Command
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Run the command by entering it in the MATLAB Command Window. Web browsers do not support MATLAB commands.
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