errorbar_groups.m

function [bar_xtick,hb,he]=errorbar_groups(bar_input,errorbar_input,varargin)
%
% ERRORBAR_GROUPS: grouped bar plot with error bars, customizable.
%
% ERRORBAR_GROUPS(bar_input,errorbar_input) produces a bar plot of matrix
% bar_input, whose first dimension indicates the number of bars per group
% and the second dimension indicates the number of groups. The bars are
% grouped together, similar to the plot produced by BAR(Y,'grouped').
%
% It then overlays an error bar plot of errorbar_input, the size of which
% must match that of bar_input. Error bars are assumed to be symmetric
% around the values of the bar plot, similar to the plot produced by
% ERRORBAR(Y,E). Note that, if all the values of errorbar_input are set to
% zero, the function skips plotting the error bars.
%
% ERRORBAR_GROUPS(bar_input,errorbar_lower,errorbar_upper) allows
% the lower and upper bounds of the error bars to be asymmetric around the
% values of the bar plot, similar to the plot produced by ERRORBAR(Y,L,U).
%
% Note that it is impossible to input the X coordinates of the bars using
% this function.
%
% bar_xtick = ERRORBAR_GROUPS(...) returns the X coordinates for the center
% of each group of bars.
%
% [...,hb,he] = ERRORBAR_GROUPS(...) returns the handles to the bars
% (produced by BAR) and the error bars (produced by ERRORBAR).
%
% ERRORBAR_GROUPS(...,'ParameterName',ParameterValue) allows customizing
% the display.
%
% 'bar_width': scalar determining bar width. Must be between 0 and 1. A
% bar_width value of 1 causes all the bars to touch each other. This
% parameter is identical to the optional width parameter of BAR. Default
% value: 0.9.
%
% 'errorbar_width': scalar determining error bar width, expressed as a
% fraction of the width of the bars themselves. Default value: 0.75.
%
% 'bar_colors': N-by-3 matrix determing the RGB values for bar colors. You
% must provide at least as many colors as there are groups in your plot.
% Default value: MATLAB's LINES colormap is used.
%
% 'errorbar_colors': N-by-3 matrix determining the RGB values for error bar
% colors. You must provide at least as many colors as there are groups in
% your plot. Default value: the error bar colors are set to black.
%
% 'optional_bar_arguments': cell array containing any 'PropertyName' -
% 'PropertyValue' input argument pair that you would like to pass on to
% BAR. Default value: no further input arguments are passed to BAR.
%
% 'optional_errorbar_arguments': cell array containing any 'PropertyName' -
% 'PropertyValue' input argument pair that you would like to pass on to
% ERRORBAR. Default value: {'LineStyle','none','Marker','none'}
% (causes ERRORBAR to plot no line between error bars, and no marker at the
% center of each error bar)
%
% 'bar_names': cell string array containing labels to apply to each group
% of bars. You must provide at least as many labels as there are bars in
% your plot. Default value: the bars are numbered consecutively, starting
% from 1.
%
% 'FigID': handle to the figure where the bar plot will be plotted.
% Default value: a new figure is created.
%
% 'AxID': handle to the axes where the bar plot will be plotted. Default
% value: a new axes is created.
%
% Examples:
%
% Basic usage:
%   bar_input=rand(3,8)/2+0.5;
%   errorbar_input=rand(3,8)/8;
%   errorbar_groups(bar_input,errorbar_input);
%
% Set the lower bound of the error bars to 0, effectively plotting only the
% upper bound:
%   bar_input=rand(4,6)/2+0.5;
%   errorbar_lower=zeros(size(bar_input));
%   errorbar_upper=rand(4,6)/8;
%   errorbar_groups(bar_input,errorbar_lower,errorbar_upper);
%
% When plotting fewer groups and bars, the plot might look better with
% thinner bars and error bars. This also shows how to input custom names
% for the groups of bars:
%   bar_input=rand(2,4)/2+0.5;
%   errorbar_input=rand(2,4)/8;
%   errorbar_groups(bar_input,errorbar_input, ...
%       'bar_width',0.75,'errorbar_width',0.5, ...
%       'bar_names',{'A','B','C','D'});
%
% Here is how to pass optional input arguments to BAR and ERRORBAR:
%   bar_input=rand(2,4)/2+0.5;
%   errorbar_input=rand(2,4)/8;
%   errorbar_groups(bar_input,errorbar_input, ...
%       'bar_width',0.75,'errorbar_width',0.5, ...
%       'optional_bar_arguments',{'LineWidth',1.5}, ...
%       'optional_errorbar_arguments',{'LineStyle','none','Marker','none','LineWidth',1.5});
%
% See also BAR, ERRORBAR.

% Author of this function: pierre.megevand@gmail.com
%
% change log:
% 2014/07/16 -- first uploaded to the MATLAB File Exchange. Does not
% do anything with the 'grp_names' optional input yet.
% 2014/07/18 -- The x axis is now adjusted to fit the plot.
% 2014/07/28 -- With David Groppe's help, added optional figure and axes
% handles.
% 2014/08/19 -- Simplified how default parameters are defined. Added option
% to skip plotting the error bars altogether.
% 2015/01/20 -- Fixed an issue where no error bars were plotted in the case
% that one side's bound (upper or lower) was set to 0.
% Modified by Ariel Tankus: 08.04.2015. Fit to Matlab R2014b.
% 2017/09/20 -- Removed dependency on DISTINGUISHABLE_COLORS; default
% colors now draw from MATLAB's LINES colormap.

% init defaults for parameters
[N_grps,N_bars]=size(bar_input);
bar_width=0.9;
errorbar_width=0.75;
bar_colors=lines(N_grps); % get some default colors for the bars
errorbar_colors=zeros(N_grps,3); % default errorbar color is black
optional_bar_arguments={}; % there are no default optional arguments for bar
optional_errorbar_arguments={'LineStyle','none','Marker','none'}; % default optional arguments for errorbar
bar_names=strtrim(cellstr(num2str((1:N_bars)')));
grp_names=strtrim(cellstr(num2str((1:N_grps)')));
FigID=[];
AxID=[];

% deal with the input arguments
if nargin<2 % the indispensable input arguments are not provided
    error('You need to provide at least ''bar_input'' and ''errorbar_input''.');
else
    errorbar_lower=errorbar_input;
    errorbar_upper=errorbar_input;
    if any(size(bar_input)~=size(errorbar_input)) % the indispensable input arguments must have the exact same size
        error('The size of ''bar_input'' and ''errorbar_input'' must be the same.');
    else
        if numel(varargin)>0 % optional input arguments are provided
            if ~ischar(varargin{1}) % if the first optional input argument is not a character array, then by design it must be the upper bound of the error bars, or an error is thrown
                errorbar_lower=errorbar_input;
                errorbar_upper=varargin{1};
                if any(size(errorbar_lower)~=size(errorbar_upper))
                    error('The size of ''errorbar_input_low'' and ''errorbar_input_high'' must be the same.');
                end
                varargin(1)=[]; % the first optional argument has been dealt with -- remove...
            end
            while ~isempty(varargin)
                if numel(varargin)<2
                    error('You need to provide optional input arguments as ''ParameterName''-''ParameterValue'' pairs.');
                end
                switch varargin{1}
                    case 'bar_width'
                        bar_width=varargin{2};
                    case 'errorbar_width'
                        errorbar_width=varargin{2};
                    case 'bar_colors'
                        bar_colors=varargin{2};
                    case 'errorbar_colors'
                        errorbar_colors=varargin{2};
                    case 'optional_bar_arguments'
                        optional_bar_arguments=varargin{2};
                    case 'optional_errorbar_arguments'
                        optional_errorbar_arguments=varargin{2};
                    case 'bar_names'
                        bar_names=varargin{2};
                    case 'grp_names'
                        grp_names=varargin{2};
                    case 'FigID'
                        FigID=varargin{2};
                    case 'AxID'
                        AxID=varargin{2};
                    otherwise
                        error('Unexpected ''ParameterName'' input: %s\n',varargin{1});
                end
                varargin(1:2)=[]; % this pair of optional input arguments has been dealt with -- remove...
            end
        end
    end
end

% init group width and bar shift
shift_span=(1-bar_width)*(N_grps-1);
bar_shift=linspace(-shift_span/2,+shift_span/2,N_grps);

% compute position of group x ticks
bar_xtick=N_grps/2+0.5:N_grps:N_bars*N_grps-N_grps/2+0.5;

% init handles vectors
hb=zeros(N_grps,1);
he=zeros(N_grps,1);

% init figure
if ~isempty(FigID)
    figure(FigID);
else
    figure;
    FigID=gcf;
end
if ~isempty(AxID)
    set(FigID,'CurrentAxes',AxID);
    cla;
else
    clf;
end
hold on;


% plot the bars themselves
for grp=1:N_grps
    hb(grp)=bar( ...
        (grp:N_grps:N_bars*N_grps-(N_grps-grp))-bar_shift(grp), ... % this is the x position for each bar
        bar_input(grp,:),  ... % this is the y position for each bar
        bar_width/N_grps, ... % this is the width of each bar
        'FaceColor',bar_colors(grp,:), ... % color parameter
        optional_bar_arguments{:}); % extra parameters
end

% plot the error bars
if any(any(errorbar_lower~=0))||any(any(errorbar_upper~=0))
    
    for grp=1:N_grps
        he(grp)=errorbar( ...
            (grp:N_grps:N_bars*N_grps-(N_grps-grp))-bar_shift(grp), ... % this is the x position for each bar
            bar_input(grp,:),  ... % this is the y position for each bar
            errorbar_lower(grp,:), ... % this is the error low value for each bar
            errorbar_upper(grp,:), ... % this is the error high value for each bar
            'Color',errorbar_colors(grp,:), ... % color parameter
            optional_errorbar_arguments{:}); % extra parameters
    end
    
    % set the errorbar widths
    if verLessThan('matlab', '8.4.0')
        he_c=get(he,'Children');
        if ~iscell(he_c)
            temp=he_c;
            he_c=cell(1,1);
            he_c{1}=temp;
            clear temp;
        end
    end
    
    for grp=1:N_grps
        if verLessThan('matlab', '8.4.0')
            he_xdata=get(he_c{grp}(2),'XData');
        else
            he_xdata=get(he(grp), 'XData');
        end
        he_xdata(4:9:end)=he_xdata(1:9:end)-errorbar_width*bar_width/2;
        he_xdata(7:9:end)=he_xdata(1:9:end)-errorbar_width*bar_width/2;
        he_xdata(5:9:end)=he_xdata(1:9:end)+errorbar_width*bar_width/2;
        he_xdata(8:9:end)=he_xdata(1:9:end)+errorbar_width*bar_width/2;
        if verLessThan('matlab', '8.4.0')
            set(he_c{grp}(2),'XData',he_xdata);
        else
            set(he(grp),'XData',he_xdata);
        end
    end
    
end

% set the x tick labels
set(gca,'XTick',bar_xtick,'XTickLabel',bar_names);

% cosmetic fine-tuning of the figure
set(gca,'XLim',[0 bar_xtick(end)+bar_xtick(1)]); % adjusts the x axis to the plot
hold off;