subplot aligment automatic method

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Hi,
I would like to know if there is an easy way to align subplots ina figure. Here is my problem.
I have a figure with a subplot with a colorbar (on the right of the plot) and a subplot without a colorbar but with two y axis and relative labels bennith it. I would like the plot to be aligned (meaning the x values of the two subplot should be at the same horizontal location). The only way I found to achive that is to thinker with the 'Position' options of the subplot. Like:
subplot(4,2,6,'Position', [0.095 0.1 0.81 0.1428])
But thsi solution depends on the size of the figure itself and on the screen the figure is beign plotted to (at least that is my guess since I get different results dependig on the screen matlab is plotting it in and if I maximize the figure or not).
minimal working example of the problem:
C = [0 2 4 6; 8 10 12 14; 16 18 20 22];
figure
subplot(2,1,1)
imagesc(C)
colorbar
subplot(2,1,2)
hold on
yyaxis left
plot(C(:)); ylabel('C')
yyaxis right
plot(-C(:)); ylabel('-C')
Real case problem output
Any advice is appriciated!
  4 Comments
Adam Danz
Adam Danz on 5 Mar 2021
Edited: Adam Danz on 6 Mar 2021
> I would like to understand why this is not working
It does work in the sense of equating axis sizes. It's similar to method 1 in my answer. The problem is the linkaxes line which changes the xlim property which has nothing to do with axis position within the figure.
giacomo labbri
giacomo labbri on 7 Mar 2021
Just for the record even commenting the linkaxes line I still get the same result. But your answer (see below) do work, so thanks!

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Accepted Answer

Adam Danz
Adam Danz on 5 Mar 2021
Edited: Adam Danz on 5 Mar 2021
Method 1: equate axis sizes for all axes after adding colorbar
Size of axes without a colorbar will be set to the size of axes with a colorbar.
% Create Demo
ax = gobjects(2,3);
for i = 1:5
ax(i) = subplot(3,2,i);
imagesc(ax(i),rand(100,1000))
colorbar(ax(i))
end
ax(end) = subplot(3,2,6);
plot(ax(end), 1:1000,(1:1000).*rand(1,1000)*2)
% Set the width and height of all axes to the min width & height
allAxPos = vertcat(ax.Position);
allAxPos(:,3:4) = min(allAxPos(:,3:4)).*ones(numel(ax),1);
set(ax,{'position'},mat2cell(allAxPos,ones(numel(ax),1),4))
Method 2: Restore axis position and set colobar positions
The axes maintain their original sizes prior to adding colorbar. The colorbar position and width is adjusted.
function addOutsideColorbar(ax)
pos = ax.Position;
cb = colorbar(ax,'EastOutside');
ax.Position = pos;
cb.Position(1) = sum(ax.Position([1,3]))+.01;
cb.Position(3) = cb.Position(3).*.5;
end
Demo
ax = gobjects(2,3);
for i = 1:5
ax(i) = subplot(3,2,i);
imagesc(ax(i),rand(100,1000))
addOutsideColorbar(ax(i))
end
ax(end) = subplot(3,2,6);
plot(ax(end), 1:1000,(1:1000).*rand(1,1000)*2)
Method 3: Use tiledlayout
ax = gobjects(2,3);
tlo = tiledlayout(3,2);
for i = 1:5
ax(i) = nexttile(tlo);
imagesc(ax(i),rand(100,1000))
colorbar(ax(i))
end
ax(end) = nexttile(tlo);
plot(ax(end), 1:1000,(1:1000).*rand(1,1000)*2)

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