Using

Syntax:

        plot "datafile" { using { <ycol> |
                                  <xcol>:<ycol> |
                                  <xcol>:<ycol>:<ydelta> |
                                  <xcol>:<ycol>:<ylow>:<yhigh> }
                                {"<scanf string>"} } ...

and

        splot "datafile" { using { <xcol>:<ycol>:<zcol> | <zcol> }
                                 {"<scanf string>"} } ...

<xcol>, <ycol>, and <zcol> explicitly select the columns to plot from a space or tab separated multicolumn data file. If only <ycol> is selected for plot, <xcol> defaults to 1. If only <zcol> is selected for splot, then only that column is read from the file. An <xcol> of 0 forces <ycol> to be plotted versus its coordinate number. <xcol>, <ycol>, and <zcol> can be entered as constants or expressions.

If errorbars (see also plot errorbars) are used for plots, ydelta (for example, a +/- error) should be provided as the third column, or ylow and yhigh as third and fourth columns. These columns must follow the x and y columns.

Scanf strings override any <xcol>:<ycol>(:<zcol>) choices, except for ordering of input, e.g.,

        plot "datafile" using 2:1 "%f%*f%f"

If the scanf string is omitted, the default is generated based on the <xcol>:<ycol>(:<zcol>) choices. If the using option is omitted, ''%f%f'' is used for plot (''%f%f%f%f'' for errorbar plots) and ''%f%f%f'' is used for splot.

Examples:

        plot "MyData" using "%*f%f%*20[^\n]%f" with lines

Data are read from the file ``MyData'' using the format ''%*f%f%*20[^ \n]%f''. The meaning of this format is: ''%*f'' ignore the first number, ''%f'' then read in the second and assign to x, ''%*20[^ \n]'' then ignore 20 non-newline characters, ''%f'' then read in the y value.

        n=3;
        plot "MyData", "MyData" using n

causes GNUPLOT to plot the second and third columns of MyData versus the first column. The command 'n=4; replot' would then plot the second and fourth columns of MyData versus the first column.

        splot "glass.dat" using 1

causes GNUPLOT to plot the first coordinate of the points of glass.dat as the z coordinate while ignoring the other two coordinates.

Note: GNUPLOT first reads a line of the data file into a buffer and then does a

        sscanf(input_buffer, scanf_string, &x, &y{, &z});