Plotting a 6 Dimensional Array

I have a 6 dimensional array with each dimension have 17 elements. Now I want to plot this array but don't know how. Can anyone please suggest a method to plot this array

[Alessandro Masullo]

What do you mean by 6 dimensional array? Is it a 17*17*17*17*17*17 matrix?

[Tanvir Ahmad]

Yes it is a 17*17*17*17*17*17 matrix. I am working on some wind energy problems. Each dimension represents one wind turbine. Then I add all these powers to get the total power. The problem is a complex one. Therefore, I have to plot all the combinations of powers and the find the maximum. I have the combinations in this 6-D array, now I have to plot it somehow and then use some technique to find the maxima.

This problem in the future would have more turbines - means more dimensions

[geekyGiraffe]

function plotm works for 6 dimensional data

Answer 1

[Zoltán Csáti]

Plot like a multivariate function: by its level sets.

[Tanvir Ahmad]

Could you explain it a bit more please

[Zoltán Csáti]

You can display a function of two variables. But what about a function of three variables. We cannot represent it like the former one. In that case we fix one variable (give it a certain value, call it c) and plot the remaining two the usual way. We can set different values of c and we get the so-called isosurfaces. This is what you do when you deal with a multivariate function. Let f(x1,x2,...,xn) be a function of n variables. You will fix n-2 (or n-1) variables and will plot it as f(x1,x2,c1,...,c_(n-2)). If you choose different values for c_i, you can represent the function as a surface.

Now turn to that 6D array. You can do it like this:

% Assume that X and Y are given. The correspond to x1 and x2
% and M is the 6D array.
mesh(X,Y,M(:,:,1,1,1,1);
% If you want to plot it in the third and fifth dimension:
mesh(1,1,:,1,:,1);

[Tanvir Ahmad]

Thank you. These are some very useful tips and solved most of my problem, except for one thing. When I try to plot the last two dimensions i.e. 5th and 6th like mesh(x,y,m(1,1,1,1,:,:)) then I get an error message that Z i.e. the last argument of mesh, must be a matrix, not a scalar or vector. Could you explain what's wrong with this one. I want to keep X and Y here as these variables show the scales of the plot. Could you explain it please.

Thank you again

[Zoltán Csáti]

It is quite ambiguous for me to deal with arrays of more than 3 dimensions. I suggest you to use a cell array instead, in which every cell would contain a matrix representing a wind turbine.

[arich82]

Try using the squeeze command:

   mesh(x, y, squeeze(m(1,1,1,1,:,:)));