Data files should contain one data point per line. A data point may be specified either as an X and Y value separated by blank space, or as just the Y value, in which case the program will use the number of the coordinate as the X value. Coordinate numbers start at 0 and are incremented for each data point read. Lines beginning with # (or ! on VMS) will be treated as comments and ignored. NOTE that blank lines cause a break in the input, and if the plot style is lines or linespoints (see plot style) there will be no line drawn between the preceding and following points. This does not change the plot style, as would plotting the data as separate curves.
This example compares the data in the file population.dat to a theoretical curve:
pop(x) = 103*exp((1965-x)/10) plot [1960:1990] 'population.dat', pop(x)
The file population.dat might contain:
# Gnu population in Antarctica since 1965 1965 103 1970 55 1975 34 1980 24 1985 10