Setting colors for plot function in Matlab

Question

I would like to be able to choose the colors for a multiline plot but I can not get it. This is my code

colors = {'b','r','g'};
T = [0 1 2]';
column = [2 3];
count = magic(3);
SelecY = count(:,column),
plot(T,SelecY,'Color',colors{column});

Answer 1

For some reason I couldn't get it to work without using a handle, but:

h = plot(T,SelecY);
set(h, {'Color'}, colors(column)');

Works for me.

Answer 2

You can only specify one color at a time that way, and it must be specified as a 3-element RGB vector. Your three routes are:

1. Loop through and specify the colors by string, like you have them:

   hold on
   for i=1:size(SelecY, 2)
       plot(T, SelecY(:,i), colors{i});
   end
   

2. Using the RGB color specification, you can pass the colors in via the 'Color' property, like you were trying to do above:

   cols = jet(8);
   hold on
   for i=1:size(SelecY, 2)
       plot(T, SelecY(:,i), 'Color', cols(i,:));
   end
   

3. Also using the RGB way, you can specify the ColorOrder up front, and then let matlab cycle through:

   set(gca, 'ColorOrder', jet(3))
   hold all
   for i=1:size(SelecY, 2)
       plot(T, SelecY(:,i));
   end
   

For setting colors after the fact, see the other answer.