piechart

Pie chart

Since R2023b. Recommended over pie.

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Syntax

piechart(data)

piechart(data,names)

piechart(categoricaldata)

piechart(tbl,datavar)

piechart(tbl,datavar,namesvar)

piechart(tbl,categoricalvar)

piechart(parent,___)

piechart(___,Name=Value)

p = piechart(___)

Description

Vector Data

piechart(data) creates a pie chart of the values in the vector data. Each slice has a label indicating its size as a percentage of the whole pie.

piechart(data,names) specifies names for the slices. When you specify slice names, they are included in the slice labels.

piechart(categoricaldata) creates a pie chart of categorical values. The number of instances of a category determines the size of the corresponding slice, and each slice label includes the category name.

Table Data

piechart(tbl,datavar) creates a pie chart from the variable datavar in the table tbl. The resulting pie chart has one slice for each row in the table.

piechart(tbl,datavar,namesvar) specifies the variable namesvar for the names of the slices. If namesvar contains duplicate names, MATLAB^® displays multiple slices with the same name.

piechart(tbl,categoricalvar) specifies the categorical variable categoricalvar. The number of instances of a category determines the size of the corresponding slice, and each slice label contains the corresponding category name.

Additional Options

piechart(parent,___) creates the pie chart in the specified parent container. The parent container is typically a figure, panel, or tab. Specify parent as the first argument in any of the previous syntaxes.

piechart(___,Name=Value) specifies properties of the chart using one or more name-value arguments. Specify the name-value arguments after all other input arguments. For example, piechart([1 2 3],ExplodedWedges=2) creates a pie chart with the second slice offset.

For a list of properties, see PieChart Properties.

p = piechart(___) returns the PieChart object. Use p to set properties of the chart after creating it. For a list of properties, see PieChart Properties.

Examples

Create Pie Chart

Create a pie chart from a vector of numbers. By default, each slice label displays a percentage value.

data = [1 2 3 4];
piechart(data)

Create Pie Chart from Categorical Data

Create a pie chart from a categorical vector. The piechart function counts the number of instances of each category to determine the size of each slice.

Control the order of the slices by calling the reordercats function.

flavors = categorical(["Banana Cream","Pumpkin","Pumpkin","MATLAB","Blackberry"]);
flavors = reordercats(flavors,["MATLAB","Pumpkin","Banana Cream","Blackberry"]);
piechart(flavors)

Create Pie Chart from Table Data

Create a table containing the names of bakers in a pie contest and the corresponding number of votes.

Bakers = ["Betty";"Abby";"Afiq";"Ravi";"Dave"];
Votes = [2; 5; 5; 2; 5];
tbl = table(Bakers,Votes)

tbl=5×2 table
    Bakers     Votes
    _______    _____

    "Betty"      2  
    "Abby"       5  
    "Afiq"       5  
    "Ravi"       2  
    "Dave"       5  

Create a pie chart from the table.

piechart(tbl,"Votes","Bakers")

Reverse Rotation Direction and Shift Slices

You can specify the rotation direction and shift all the slices around the circle by setting properties. You can set properties by specifying name-value arguments when you call the piechart function, or you can set properties of the PieChart object later.

Create a vector called data and use it to create a pie chart. By default, the slices appear in a clockwise direction and the left edge of the first (blue) slice is at 0 degrees (12 o'clock).

data = [1 2 3 4];
piechart(data)

Create another pie chart, but this time, set the Direction property to "counterclockwise" by specifying it as a name-value argument. Call the piechart function with an output argument to store the PieChart object.

p = piechart(data,Direction="counterclockwise");

Shift the slices by 90 degrees counterclockwise by setting the StartAngle property of the PieChart object to -90.

p.StartAngle = -90;

Display Labels with Counts Instead of Percentages

You can change the slice labels from percentages to counts by setting the LabelStyle property. The LabelStyle property has options for displaying different combinations of slice names, data values, and percentages.

Create a pie chart from a numeric vector and a vector of names. Specify an output argument to store the PieChart object. Then change the labels to include the data values instead of the percentages.

data = [1 2 3];
names = ["Blueberry","Pumpkin","Lemon"];
p = piechart(data,names);
p.LabelStyle = "namedata";

Another option is to display just the names without any data or percentage values.

p.LabelStyle="name";

Customize Slice Names and Labels

Create a pie chart that shows the percentage of total sales for each participant in a bake sale. Call the piechart function with an output argument to store the PieChart object so you can change aspects of the chart later.

Bakers = ["Betty","Abby","Afiq","Ravi","Dave"];
Sales = [20 51.55 49.37 20.35 48.25];
p = piechart(Sales,Bakers);

Query the slice names of the PieChart object.

p.Names

ans = 1x5 string
    "Betty"    "Abby"    "Afiq"    "Ravi"    "Dave"

Change the slice names to the pie flavors.

p.Names = ["Blueberry","Pumpkin","Banana Cream","Blackberry","Key Lime"];

Display each label as two lines of text, with the pie flavor on the first line and the sales number on the second line. To combine the different elements for each label, start with the Names property, and add a newline character, a dollar sign, and the Sales vector (converted to a string).

p.Labels = p.Names + "\newline$" + string(Sales);

Change Slice Colors

You can change the colors of your pie chart by using the colororder function. For example, create a pie chart with the default colors.

piechart([1 2 3 4])

You can choose from several named color palettes, including gem (default), glow, sail, reef, meadow, dye, and earth. Change the color palette to meadow.

colororder meadow

Change the color palette to sail.

colororder sail

Specify Slice Order and Consolidate Smaller Slices

Since R2024b

You can consolidate the data from multiple small slices into one slice named "Others" by setting the NumDisplayWedges property. You can also arrange the slices in ascending or descending order by setting the DisplayOrder property.

For example, create a pie chart that shows the number of employees at a company by department. When you create the chart, specify an output argument to store the PieChart object so you can modify it later.

employees = [100 10 50 30 25 10 15];
departments = ["Engineering" "Sales" "User Experience" "Documentation" "IT" "HR" "Security"];
p = piechart(employees,departments,LabelStyle="name");

Arrange the slices in descending order according to the number of employees.

p.DisplayOrder = "descend";

Display three slices and consolidate the other slices into a fourth slice named "Others". Because the slices were sorted in descending order by the DisplayOrder property, setting NumDisplayWedges to 3 displays the three largest slices.

p.NumDisplayWedges = 3;

Create Multiple Pie Charts in Figure

To create multiple charts in a figure, use a tiled chart layout.

Create a 1-by-2 tiled chart layout. Create the first chart by calling the nexttile function followed by the piechart function. Then add a title by calling the title function. Repeat these steps for the second chart.

tiledlayout(1,2)
nexttile
piechart([1 2 3 4])
title("2022 Totals")
nexttile
piechart([10 3 1 5 6 4])
title("2023 Totals")

Input Arguments

data — Slice data

numeric vector | duration vector

Slice data, specified as a vector of numeric or duration values. The size of each slice is a percentage of the whole pie, depending on the sum of the elements of data:

• If sum(data) < 1, the values of data specify the areas of the pie slices, and the result is a partial pie.

• If sum(data) ≥ 1, MATLAB normalizes the values by data/sum(data) to determine the area of each slice of the pie.

Example: piechart([0.1 0.2 0.3]) creates a partial pie chart.

Example: piechart([1 2 3 4]) creates a pie chart using values that sum to a number greater than 1.

Example: piechart([0.5 0.25 0.25]) creates a pie chart using proportional values that sum to 1.

Data Types: single | double | int8 | int16 | int32 | int64 | uint8 | uint16 | uint32 | uint64 | duration

names — Slice names

string vector | cell array of character vectors | numeric vector | ...

Slice names, specified as a string vector, cell array of character vectors, or a vector containing numeric, duration, datetime, or categorical values. The vector or cell array must have the same number of elements as data. The slice names and the slice percentages are included in the slice labels.

Example: piechart([1 2 3],["Apples","Cherries","Grapes"]) specifies the names as a string vector.

Example: piechart([1 2 3],categorical(["Apples","Cherries","Grapes"])) specifies the names as a categorical vector.

Example: piechart([10 20 30],minutes([1 2 3])) specifies the names as a duration vector.

Data Types: single | double | int8 | int16 | int32 | int64 | uint8 | uint16 | uint32 | uint64 | duration | datetime | categorical | string | cell

categoricaldata — Categorical slice data

categorical vector | logical vector

Categorical slice data, specified as a categorical or logical vector. The size of each slice is proportional to the number of times each value occurs in the vector. The slice names are the category names.

Example: piechart(categorical(["Apples","Cherries","Grapes","Oranges"])) creates a pie chart with four slices of the same size.

Example: piechart(categorical(["Apples","Cherries","Cherries", "Cherries"])) creates a pie chart with a "Cherries" slice that occupies 3/4 of the pie. The "Apples" slice occupies the remaining 1/4 of the pie.

Data Types: categorical | logical

tbl — Source table

table | timetable

Source table containing the slice data, specified as a table or timetable.

datavar — Table variable containing slice data

string scalar | character vector | pattern | numeric scalar | logical vector | vartype()

Table variable containing the slice data, specified using one of the indexing schemes from the following table. The table variable you specify can contain numeric or duration values.

Indexing Scheme	Examples
Variable name: A string scalar or character vector. A pattern object. The pattern object must refer to only one variable.	"A" or 'A' — A variable named A "Var"+digitsPattern(1) — The variable with the name "Var" followed by a single digit
Variable index: An index number that refers to the location of a variable in the table. A logical vector. Typically, this vector is the same length as the number of variables, but you can omit trailing 0 or false values.	3 — The third variable from the table [false false true] — The third variable
Variable type: A vartype subscript that selects a table variable of a specified type. The subscript must refer to only one variable.	vartype("double") — The variable containing double values

Example: piechart(tbl,"mydata") specifies the table variable named mydata.

namesvar — Table variable containing slice names

string scalar | character vector | pattern | numeric scalar | logical vector | vartype()

Table variable containing the slice names, specified using one of the indexing schemes from the following table. The table variable you specify can contain a string vector, a cell array of character vectors, or a vector of numeric, datetime, duration, or categorical values.

Indexing Scheme	Examples
Variable name: A string scalar or character vector. A pattern object. The pattern object must refer to only one variable.	"A" or 'A' — A variable named A "Var"+digitsPattern(1) — The variable with the name "Var" followed by a single digit
Variable index: An index number that refers to the location of a variable in the table. A logical vector. Typically, this vector is the same length as the number of variables, but you can omit trailing 0 or false values.	3 — The third variable from the table [false false true] — The third variable
Variable type: A vartype subscript that selects a table variable of a specified type. The subscript must refer to only one variable.	vartype("double") — The variable containing double values

Example: piechart(tbl,"mydata","mynames") creates a pie chart using the slice data in the variable mydata and the slice names in the variable mynames.

categoricalvar — Table variable containing categorical data

string scalar | character vector | pattern | numeric scalar | logical vector | vartype()

Table variable containing the categorical data, specified using one of the indexing schemes from the following table. The table variable you specify can contain categorical data or logical values. The number of instances of a category determines the size of the corresponding slice.

Indexing Scheme	Examples
Variable name: A string scalar or character vector. A pattern object. The pattern object must refer to only one variable.	"A" or 'A' — A variable named A "Var"+digitsPattern(1) — The variable with the name "Var" followed by a single digit
Variable index: An index number that refers to the location of a variable in the table. A logical vector. Typically, this vector is the same length as the number of variables, but you can omit trailing 0 or false values.	3 — The third variable from the table [false false true] — The third variable
Variable type: A vartype subscript that selects a table variable of a specified type. The subscript must refer to only one variable.	vartype("double") — The variable containing double values

Example: piechart(tbl,"mycats") specifies the table variable named mycats.

parent — Parent container

Figure object | Panel object | Tab object | TiledChartLayout object | GridLayout object

Parent container, specified as a Figure, Panel, Tab, TiledChartLayout, or GridLayout object.

Name-Value Arguments

Specify optional pairs of arguments as Name1=Value1,...,NameN=ValueN, where Name is the argument name and Value is the corresponding value. Name-value arguments must appear after other arguments, but the order of the pairs does not matter.

Example: piechart([1 2 3 4],StartAngle=90) creates a pie chart with a starting angle of 90 degrees.

Note

The properties listed here are only a subset. For a full list, see PieChart Properties.

ExplodedWedges — Offset slices

numeric vector | logical vector | string vector | character vector

Offset slices, specified as a numeric or logical vector for numeric data. If you create the chart using categorical data, you can specify a string vector or a character vector containing one or more category names. The orange slice in this pie chart is offset.

Example: piechart([5 7 4 6],ExplodedWedges=3) creates a pie chart with the third slice offset.

Example: piechart([5 7 4 6],ExplodedWedges=[1 3]) creates a pie chart with the first and third slice offset.

Example: piechart([5 7 4 6],ExplodedWedges=[false false true false]) creates a pie chart with the third slice offset.

Example: piechart(categorical(["A" "B" "C" "D"]),ExplodedWedges="B") creates a pie chart using categorical data with slice B offset.

StartAngle — Starting angle of first slice

0 (default) | number in degrees

Starting angle of the first slice, specified as a scalar value in degrees. By default, the starting angle is 0 degrees. Positive values rotate the slices in a clockwise direction. Negative values rotate the slices in a counterclockwise direction.

You can envision the location of the starting angle by considering the arrangement of numbers on a clock. A starting angle of 0 degrees corresponds to 12 o'clock, and a starting angle of 90 degrees corresponds to 3 o'clock.

Data Types: single | double | int8 | int16 | int32 | int64 | uint8 | uint16 | uint32 | uint64

Direction — Direction for adding slices

"clockwise" (default) | "counterclockwise"

Direction for adding slices, specified as "clockwise" or "counterclockwise".

• "clockwise" — Add slices in a clockwise direction.

• "counterclockwise" — Add slices in a counterclockwise direction.

Output Arguments

p — PieChart object

PieChart object

PieChart object, which is a standalone visualization. Use p to set properties on the pie chart after creating it.

More About

Standalone Visualization

A standalone visualization is a chart designed for a special purpose that works independently from other charts. Unlike other charts such as plot and surf, a standalone visualization has a preconfigured axes object built into it, and some customizations are not available. A standalone visualization also has these characteristics:

• It cannot be combined with other graphics elements, such as lines, patches, or surfaces. Thus, the hold command is not supported.

• The gca function can return the chart object as the current axes.

• You can pass the chart object to many MATLAB functions that accept an axes object as an input argument. For example, you can pass the chart object to the title function.

Version History

Introduced in R2023b

R2024b: Pie charts show undefined categorical values by default

Pie charts include undefined categorical values and show them in a slice labeled "Others" by default. Previously, undefined values were excluded from the calculation of the Proportions property, and the values were not shown as slices in the chart. This change makes it easier to understand the nature of categorical data in the chart.

For example, create a pie chart using a categorical array containing three undefined values (""). In R2024a, the chart excludes the undefined values. In R2024b, the chart contains a slice labeled "Others" to represent the undefined values.

cats = categorical(["Glazed" "Jelly" "Jelly" "Jelly", ...
     "Sugar","Sugar","Plain","","","",]);
piechart(cats,LabelStyle="name")

To exclude the "Others" slice from the chart and exclude the undefined values from the Proportions calculation, set the ShowOthers property to "off".

piechart(cats,LabelStyle="name",ShowOthers="off")