pareto

Syntax

pareto(Y)
pareto(Y,names)
pareto(Y,X)
pareto(ax,..)
H = pareto(...)
[H,ax] = pareto(...)

Description

Pareto charts display the values in the vector Y as bars drawn in descending order. Values in Y must be nonnegative and not include NaNs. By default, either the tallest 10 bars or first 95% of the cumulative distribution is displayed, whichever is smaller.

pareto(Y) labels each bar with its element index in Y and also plots a line displaying the cumulative sum of Y.

pareto(Y,names) labels each bar with the associated text in the matrix or cell array names.

pareto(Y,X) labels each bar with the associated value from X.

pareto(ax,..) plots into the axes ax rather than the current axes, gca.

pareto(...,threshold) specifies a threshold value between 0 and 1. The threshold is the fraction of the cumulative histogram to include in the chart. The chart displays a maximum of ten bars, regardless of the threshold value.

H = pareto(...) returns the primitive Line and Bar objects created.

[H,ax] = pareto(...) additionally returns the two axes objects created.

Examples

collapse all

Create a Pareto chart of vector y.

y = [90,75,30,60,5,40,40,5];
figure
pareto(y)

pareto displays the elements in y as bars in descending order and labels each bar with its index in y. Since pareto displays only the first 95% of the cumulative distribution, some elements in y are not displayed.

Examine the cumulative productivity of a group of programmers to see how normal its distribution is. Label each bar with the name of the programmer.

codelines = [200 120 555 608 1024 101 57 687];
coders = {'Fred','Ginger','Norman','Max','Julia','Wally','Heidi','Pat'};

figure
pareto(codelines, coders)
title('Lines of Code by Programmer')

Create a Pareto chart that examines the preferred types of pie in a survey of 200 participants. Include all the values in the cumulative distribution by setting the threshold argument to 1.

pies = {'Chocolate','Apple','Pecan','Cherry','Pumpkin'};
votes = [35 50 30 5 80];
pareto(votes,pies,1)
ylabel('Votes')

Extended Capabilities

See Also

Functions

Properties

Introduced before R2006a