Setting the alpha value (transparency) of legend to match alpha in plot in MatLab

Question

I've seen this question asked before but there appears to be no solution so am just wondering if it is at all possible.

I have a bar plot in MatLab and have set the transparency:

B = bar(x,y,'stacked');
set(B(1),'facecolor',[0 0.3906 0]) 
set(B(2),'facecolor',[0.5625 0.9297 0.5625])
ch1 = get(B(1),'child');
set(ch1,'facea',.5)
ch2 = get(B(2),'child');
set(ch2,'facea',.5)

And I would like the transparency in the plot to be reflected in the legend:

BL = legend ((B([1 2])),{'data1','data2'},'fontsize',10);

However, it appears the alpha value in the legend is 1.

Any ideas? Thanks.

Answer 1

Note with the 2014b update a slight change is needed. The information about patches etc. seems now to be held in the "icons" output from the legend command, so you need;

[BL,BLicons] = legend ((B([1 2])),{'data1','data2'},'fontsize',10);

and then

PatchInLegend = findobj(BLicons, 'type', 'patch');
set(PatchInLegend, 'facea', 0.5)

for this to work now. Just spent an hour figuring this out, so thought I'd pass it on:)