Arrow

Arbitrary arrows can be placed on a plot using the set arrow command.

Syntax:

     set arrow {<tag>} {from <position>} {to <position>} {{no}head}
               { {linestyle | ls <line_style>}
                 | {linetype | lt <line_type>}
                   {linewidth | lw <line_width} }
     set noarrow {<tag>}
     show arrow

<tag> is an integer that identifies the arrow. If no tag is given, the lowest unused tag value is assigned automatically. The tag can be used to delete or change a specific arrow. To change any attribute of an existing arrow, use the set arrow command with the appropriate tag and specify the parts of the arrow to be changed.

The <position>s are specified by either x,y or x,y,z, and may be preceded by first, second, graph, or screen to select the coordinate system. Unspecified coordinates default to 0. The endpoints can be specified in one of four coordinate systems — first or second axes, graph or screen. See coordinates for details. A coordinate system specifier does not carry over from the "from" position to the "to" position. Arrows outside the screen boundaries are permitted but may cause device errors.

Specifying nohead produces an arrow drawn without a head — a line segment. This gives you yet another way to draw a line segment on the plot. By default, arrows have heads.

The line style may be selected from a user-defined list of line styles (see set linestyle) or may be defined here by providing values for <line_type> (an index from the default list of styles) and/or <line_width> (which is a multiplier for the default width).

Note, however, that if a user-defined line style has been selected, its properties (type and width) cannot be altered merely by issuing another set arrow command with the appropriate index and lt or lw.

Examples:

To set an arrow pointing from the origin to (1,2) with user-defined style 5, use:

     set arrow to 1,2 ls 5

To set an arrow from bottom left of plotting area to (-5,5,3), and tag the arrow number 3, use:

     set arrow 3 from graph 0,0 to -5,5,3

To change the preceding arrow to end at 1,1,1, without an arrow head and double its width, use:

     set arrow 3 to 1,1,1 nohead lw 2

To draw a vertical line from the bottom to the top of the graph at x=3, use:

     set arrow from 3, graph 0 to 3, graph 1 nohead

To delete arrow number 2, use:

     set noarrow 2

To delete all arrows, use:

     set noarrow

To show all arrows (in tag order), use:

     show arrow