Function Reference
— Function File: contour (z)
— Function File: contour (z, vn)
— Function File: contour (x, y, z)
— Function File: contour (x, y, z, vn)
— Function File: contour (..., style)
— Function File: contour (h, ...)
— Function File: [c, h] = contour (...)

Plot level curves (contour lines) of the matrix z, using the contour matrix c computed by contourc from the same arguments; see the latter for their interpretation. The set of contour levels, c, is only returned if requested. For example:

          x = 0:2;
          y = x;
          z = x' * y;
          contour (x, y, z, 2:3)

The style to use for the plot can be defined with a line style style in a similar manner to the line styles used with the plot command. Any markers defined by style are ignored.

The optional input and output argument h allows an axis handle to be passed to contour and the handles to the contour objects to be returned.

See also: contourc patch plot

Demonstration 1

The following code

 [x, y, z] = peaks ();
 contour (x, y, z);

Produces the following figure

Demonstration 2

The following code

 [theta, r] = meshgrid (linspace (0, 2*pi, 64), linspace(0,1,64));
 [X, Y] = pol2cart (theta, r);
 Z = sin(2*theta).*(1-r);
 contour(X, Y, abs(Z), 10)

Produces the following figure