Plotting a symbolic function can help you visualize and explore the features of the function. Graphical representation of a symbolic function can also help you communicate your ideas or results. MATLAB® displays a graph in a special window called a figure window. This window provides interactive tools for further exploration of a function or data plot.
Interactive data exploration tools are available in the Figure Toolbar and also from the Tools menu. By default, a figure window displays one toolbar that provides shortcuts to the most common operations. You can enable two other toolbars from the View menu. When exploring symbolic function plots, use the same operations as you would for the numeric data plots. For example:
Zoom in and out on particular parts of a graph ( ). Zooming allows you to see small features of a function plot. Zooming behaves differently for 2-D or 3-D views.
Shift the view of the graph with the pan tool ( ). Panning is useful when you have zoomed in on a graph and want to move around the plot to view different portions.
Rotate 3-D graphs ( ). Rotating 3-D graphs allows you to see more features of the surface and mesh function plots.
Display particular data values on a graph and export them to MATLAB workspace variables ( ).