legtools is a MATLAB class definition providing the user with a set of methods to modify existing Legend objects.

This is an HG2 specific implementation and requires MATLAB R2014b or newer.

• append - Add one or more entries to the end of the legend
• permute - Rearrange the legend entries
• remove - Remove one or more legend entries
• adddummy - Add legend entry for unsupported graphics objects

Append string(s), newStrings, to the specified Legend object, legendhandle. newStrings can be a 1D character array or a 1D cell array of strings. Character arrays are treated as a single string. If multiple Legend objects are specified, only the first will be modified.

The legend will only be updated with the new strings if the number of strings in the existing legend plus the number of strings in newStrings is the same as the number of plots on the associated Axes object (e.g. if you have 2 lineseries and 2 legend entries already no changes will be made).

% Sample data x = 1:10; y1 = x; y2 = x + 1; % Plot a thing! figure plot(x, y1, 'ro'); lh = legend('Circle', 'Location', 'NorthWest'); % Add a thing! hold on plot(x, y2, 'bs'); legtools.append(lh, 'Square') 

% Sample data x = 1:10; y1 = x; y2 = x + 1; y3 = x + 2; % Plot a thing! figure plot(x, y1, 'ro'); lh = legend('Circle', 'Location', 'NorthWest'); % Add two things! hold on plot(x, y2, 'bs', x, y3, 'g+'); legtools.append(lh, {'Square', 'Plus'}) 

Rearrange the entries of the specified Legend object, legendhandle, so they are in the order specified by the vector newOrder. newOrder must be the same length as the number of legend entries in legendhandle. All elements of order must be unique, real, positive, integer values.

% Sample data x = 1:10; y1 = x; y2 = x + 1; y3 = x + 2; % Plot a thing! figure plot(x, y1, 'ro', x, y2, 'bs', x, y3, 'g+'); lh = legend({'One', 'Two', 'Three'}, 'Location', 'NorthWest'); legtools.permute(lh, [3, 1, 2]); 

Remove the legend entries of the Legend object, legendhandle, at the locations specified by removeidx. All elements of removeidx must be real, positive, integer values.

If removeidx specifies all the legend entries the Legend object, legendhandle, is deleted.

If a legend entry to be removed is one generated by legtools.adddummy, its corresponding Chart Line Object will also be deleted.

% Sample data x = 1:10; y1 = x; y2 = x + 1; y3 = x + 2; % Plot a thing! figure plot(x, y1, 'ro', x, y2, 'bs', x, y3, 'g+'); lh = legend({'One', 'Two', 'Three'}, 'Location', 'NorthWest'); legtools.remove(lh, [3, 1]); 

adddummy adds a legend entry with display name newString to the Legend Object, lh, for graphics objects that are not supported by legend.

Specify linestyle options by MATLAB's plot syntax. If none are specified, linestyle behavior mirrors that of plot. If a DisplayName is specified it will be overwritten by newString

adddummy adds a Chart Line Object to the parent axes of lh consisting of a single NaN value so nothing is rendered in the axes but it provides a valid object for legend to include legtools.remove will remove this Chart Line Object if its legend entry is removed

adddummy currently only supports creation of one new legend object

% Sample data x = 1:10; y1 = x; % Plot a thing! figure plot(x, y1); lh = legend('My Data', 'Location', 'NorthWest'); % Add a box! dim = [0.4 0.4 0.2 0.2]; annotation('rectangle', dim, 'Color', 'red') % Add a legend entry for the box! legtools.adddummy(lh, 'A Red Rectangle', 'Color', 'red')