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<a name="Managing-Default-Properties"></a>
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Previous: <a href="Searching-Properties.html#Searching-Properties" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Searching Properties</a>, Up: <a href="Graphics-Data-Structures.html#Graphics-Data-Structures" accesskey="u" rel="up">Graphics Data Structures</a> [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Concept-Index.html#Concept-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
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<a name="Managing-Default-Properties-1"></a>
<h4 class="subsection">15.3.5 Managing Default Properties</h4>
<a name="index-default-graphics-properties"></a>
<a name="index-graphics-properties_002c-default"></a>
<p>Object properties have two classes of default values, <em>factory
defaults</em> (the initial values) and <em>user-defined defaults</em>, which
may override the factory defaults.
</p>
<p>Although default values may be set for any object, they are set in
parent objects and apply to child objects, of the specified object type.
For example, setting the default <code>color</code> property of <code>line</code>
objects to <code>"green"</code>, for the <code>root</code> object, will result in all
<code>line</code> objects inheriting the <code>color</code> <code>"green"</code> as the default
value.
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">set (groot, "defaultlinecolor", "green");
</pre></div>
<p>sets the default line color for all objects. The rule for constructing
the property name to set a default value is
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">default + <var>object-type</var> + <var>property-name</var>
</pre></div>
<p>This rule can lead to some strange looking names, for example
<code>defaultlinelinewidth"</code> specifies the default <code>linewidth</code>
property for <code>line</code> objects.
</p>
<p>The example above used the root figure object so the default
property value will apply to all line objects. However, default values
are hierarchical, so defaults set in a figure objects override those
set in the root figure object. Likewise, defaults set in axes objects
override those set in figure or root figure objects. For example,
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">subplot (2, 1, 1);
set (groot, "defaultlinecolor", "red");
set (1, "defaultlinecolor", "green");
set (gca (), "defaultlinecolor", "blue");
line (1:10, rand (1, 10));
subplot (2, 1, 2);
line (1:10, rand (1, 10));
figure (2)
line (1:10, rand (1, 10));
</pre></div>
<p>produces two figures. The line in first subplot window of the first
figure is blue because it inherits its color from its parent axes
object. The line in the second subplot window of the first figure is
green because it inherits its color from its parent figure object. The
line in the second figure window is red because it inherits its color
from the global root figure parent object.
</p>
<p>To remove a user-defined default setting, set the default property to
the value <code>"remove"</code>. For example,
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">set (gca (), "defaultlinecolor", "remove");
</pre></div>
<p>removes the user-defined default line color setting from the current axes
object. To quickly remove all user-defined defaults use the <code>reset</code>
function.
</p>
<p>By default, high level plotting functions such as <code>plot</code> reset and
redefine axes properties independently from the defaults. An example of such
property is the axes <code>box</code> property: it is set <code>on</code> by high level 2-D
graphics functions regardless of the property <code>"defaultaxesbox"</code>. Use
the <code>hold</code> function to prevent this behavior:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">set (groot, "defaultaxesbox", "off");
subplot (2, 1, 1);
plot (1:10)
title ("Box is on anyway")
subplot (2, 1, 2);
hold on
plot (1:10)
title ("Box is off")
</pre></div>
<a name="XREFreset"></a><dl>
<dt><a name="index-reset"></a><em></em> <strong>reset</strong> <em>(<var>h</var>)</em></dt>
<dd><p>Reset the properties of the graphic object <var>h</var> to their default values.
</p>
<p>For figures, the properties <code>"position"</code>, <code>"units"</code>,
<code>"windowstyle"</code>, and <code>"paperunits"</code> are not affected.
For axes, the properties <code>"position"</code> and <code>"units"</code> are
not affected.
</p>
<p>The input <var>h</var> may also be a vector of graphic handles in which case
each individual object will be reset.
</p>
<p><strong>See also:</strong> <a href="Manipulation-of-Plot-Windows.html#XREFcla">cla</a>, <a href="Manipulation-of-Plot-Windows.html#XREFclf">clf</a>, <a href="Manipulation-of-Plot-Windows.html#XREFnewplot">newplot</a>.
</p></dd></dl>
<p>Getting the <code>"default"</code> property of an object returns a list of
user-defined defaults set for the object. For example,
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">get (gca (), "default");
</pre></div>
<p>returns a list of user-defined default values for the current axes
object.
</p>
<p>Factory default values are stored in the root figure object. The
command
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example">get (groot, "factory");
</pre></div>
<p>returns a list of factory defaults.
</p>
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