get handle of subplot?

After I subplot, how can I get the Position property of the current axis so I can adjust it?

Answer 1

[Fangjun Jiang]

handle=subplot(311);
get(handle,'position')

[Leor Greenberger]

ok, I had a feeling that would be the answer. I thought you could get around having to assign a variable to the subplot.

[Benoit Espinola]

For the record, get(handle, 'position') returns a vector as such:

[a b c d]

Where

a = x_lowerLeftCorner

b = y_lowerLeftCorner

c = width

d = height

All of that in the same units.

From my understanding, when the units are 'normalized' then x = 0, y = 0 is the lower left corner of the figure and x = 1, y = 1 is the upper right corner.

So, if you want your subplot to be on the top left corner, you need to do the following:

handle=subplot(311);
c = get(handle,'position');
newPosition = [1-c(3) 1-c(4) c(3) c(4)];
newUnits = 'normalized';
set(handle,'Position', newPosition,'Units', newUnits);

If you want the subplot to be in the center of the figure alinged with its own center:

handle=subplot(311);
c = get(handle,'position');
newPosition = [(1-c(3))/2 (1-c(4))/2 c(3) c(4)];
newUnits = 'normalized';
set(handle,'Position', newPosition,'Units', newUnits);

Does it make sense?

Answer 2

[Walter Roberson]

get(gca,'Position')

Be careful, though: if you adjust the position such that it would overlap the normal position of a subplot that you subplot() later, then MATLAB will detect the overlap and will remove the plot being overlapped. It may be advised to subplot() all of the portions first, recording the handles, and then to go through the saved handles and reposition or resize as desired.