box

Display axes outline

Syntax

box on

box off

box

box(visibility)

box(target,___)

Description

box on displays the box outline around the current axes by setting its Box property to "on". This property value is the default for GeographicAxes objects.

box off hides the box outline around the current axes by setting its Box property to "off". This property value is the default for Axes and PolarAxes objects.

box toggles the display of the box outline.

box(visibility) displays or hides the box outline by specifying a visibility value. You can specify visibility as "on", "off", a logical value, or an OnOffSwitchState value.

box(target,___) modifies the box outline of the axes, legend, or colorbar specified by target instead of the current axes. Specify target before all other arguments.

Examples

Display Box Outline Around Axes

Plot a surface and display the box outline around the axes.

[X,Y,Z] = peaks;
surf(X,Y,Z)
box on

Turn off the display of the box outline.

box off

Change Style of Box Outline

First, plot a surface and display the box outline around the axes. By default, the outline appears around the back planes of the axes because the BoxStyle property of the axes is set to 'back'.

[X,Y,Z] = peaks;
surf(X,Y,Z)
box on

Next, display the outline around the entire axes by setting the BoxStyle property to 'full'. Use dot notation to set properties.

ax = gca;
ax.BoxStyle = 'full';

Change Color of Box Outline

Create a scatter plot and display the box outline around the axes.

x = rand(10,1);
y = rand(10,1);
scatter(x,y)
box on

Change the color of the box outline in the x-axis direction by setting the XColor property of the axes. Use dot notation to set properties.

ax = gca;
ax.XColor = 'red';

Turn Off Box Outline for Specific Axes

Create two axes using the tiledlayout and nexttile functions. Assign the axes objects to the variables ax1 and ax2, and plot into the axes. Remove the box outline around the lower plot by specifying ax2 as the first input argument to box.

tiledlayout(2,1)
ax1 = nexttile;
plot(ax1,1:10)

ax2 = nexttile;
plot(ax2,1:10)
box(ax2,'off')

Input Arguments

visibility — Box visibility

"on" | "off" | true or 1 | false or 0 | OnOffSwitchState value

Box visibility, specified one of these values:

• "on" or "off" — A value of "on" displays the box outline, and "off" hides it. You can also specify the character vectors 'on' or 'off'.

• Numeric or logical 1 (true) or 0 (false) — A value of 1 or true displays the box outline, and 0 or false hides it. (since R2024a)

• A matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState value — A value of matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.on displays the box outline, and matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState.off hides it. (since R2024a)

target — Target axes, legend, or colorbar

axes | legend | colorbar | array of objects

Target axes, legend, or colorbar, specified as one of these items:

• Any type of axes object.

• A legend, bubble legend, or colorbar object.

• An array of axes, legends, or colorbar objects that belong to the same class. To determine the class, use the class function.

If you do not specify this argument, then box modifies the current axes.

Tips

• Some Cartesian axes properties affect the appearance of the box outline. This table lists a subset of axes properties related to the box outline.

  Axes Property	Description
  Box	Display of box outline
  BoxStyle	Style of box outline
  XColor, YColor, ZColor	Box outline color in the x-axis, y-axis, and z-axis directions
  LineWidth	Width of box outline, tick marks, and grid lines

• Some polar axes properties affect the appearance of the outline around the polar axes. If you are working with polar axes, then the box command controls the outline display when the theta-axis limits do not span 360 degrees. This table lists a subset of polar axes properties related to the outline.

  PolarAxes Property	Description
  Box	Display of full outline
  RColor, ThetaColor	Outline color
  LineWidth	Width of outline, tick marks, and grid lines

• Some geographic axes properties affect the appearance of the box outline. This table lists a subset of geographic axes properties related to the box outline.

  GeographicAxes Property	Description
  Box	Display of box outline
  AxisColor	Color of outline, tick values, and labels
  LineWidth	Width of box outline, tick marks, and grid lines

Algorithms

The box function sets the Box property of the Axes, PolarAxes, or GeographicAxes object to either "on" or "off".

Version History

Introduced before R2006a

R2024a: Display or hide box outline by specifying logical or OnOffSwitchState value

Display or hide the box outline by specifying the visibility input argument as a logical value or as a matlab.lang.OnOffSwitchState value. The values 1 and true are equivalent to "on", and 0 and false are equivalent to "off".

The values "on" and "off" are still supported.