Autoscale

Autoscaling may be set individually on the x, y or z axis or globally on all axes. The default is to autoscale all axes. If you want to autoscale based on a subset of the plots in the figure, you can mark the other ones with the flag noautoscale. See datafile (p. [*]).

Syntax:

     set autoscale {<axes>{|min|max|fixmin|fixmax|fix} | fix | keepfix}
     set autoscale noextend
     unset autoscale {<axes>}
     show autoscale

where $<$axes$>$ is either x, y, z, cb, x2, y2, xy, or paxis {n}. A keyword with min or max appended (this cannot be done with xy) tells gnuplot to autoscale just the minimum or maximum of that axis. If no keyword is given, all axes are autoscaled.

When autoscaling, the axis range is automatically computed and the dependent axis (y for a plot and z for splot) is scaled to include the range of the function or data being plotted.

If autoscaling of the dependent axis (y or z) is not set, the current y or z range is used.

Autoscaling the independent variables (x for plot and x,y for splot) is a request to set the domain to match any data file being plotted. If there are no data files, autoscaling an independent variable has no effect. In other words, in the absence of a data file, functions alone do not affect the x range (or the y range if plotting z = f(x,y)).

Please see set xrange (p. [*]) for additional information about ranges.

The behavior of autoscaling remains consistent in parametric mode, (see set parametric (p. [*])). However, there are more dependent variables and hence more control over x, y, and z axis scales. In parametric mode, the independent or dummy variable is t for plots and u,v for splots. autoscale in parametric mode, then, controls all ranges (t, u, v, x, y, and z) and allows x, y, and z to be fully autoscaled.

When tics are displayed on second axes but no plot has been specified for those axes, x2range and y2range are inherited from xrange and yrange. This is done before applying offsets or autoextending the ranges to a whole number of tics, which can cause unexpected results. To prevent this you can explicitly link the secondary axis range to the primary axis range. See set link (p. [*]).


Subsections