How to build a vertical filled plot in IDL

IDL includes a routine called FILLPLOT which allows to create horizontal filled plots. However it does not support vertical filled plots:

https://www.nv5geospatialsoftware.com/docs/FILLPLOT.html

 

The easiest way to build vertical filled plots is then to use the POLYGON routine instead:

https://www.nv5geospatialsoftware.com/docs/POLYGON.html

 

The code example below is showing how to use POLYGON routine to build a vertical filled PLOT

 

PRO TEST_VERTICAL_FILLED_PLOT


; create X data as Mineral %

x=[1,5,2,3,4,5,6,6,2,0,0,0,2,3,4,5,4,3,1,2]

; create Y data as Depth

y=INDGEN(20)


; retrieve X and Y minimum and maximum values

xpmin=min(x)

xpmax=max(x)

ypmin=min(y)

ypmax=max(y)


; dsiplay data, with increasing depth from top to bottom of Y axis

g = PLOT(x, y, YTITLE='Depth',XRANGE=[xpmin,xpmax],YRANGE=[ypmax,ypmin])

g['axis0'].SHOWTEXT =0

g['axis2']. TITLE='Mineral %'

g['axis2'].SHOWTEXT =1



; build the polygon by adding  the points: 
; [ xpmin, ypmax] , [ xpmin, ypmin]  and [ x[0], y[0]] to the input data to close the polygon along the vertical Y axis

xExt = [ x, xpmin, xpmin, x[0]]

yExt = [ y, ypmax, ypmin, y[0]]


; draw the polygon

pol = POLYGON(xExt, yExt, /DATA, FILL_BACKGROUND=1, FILL_COLOR='Yellow',TARGET=g2)


END

 

A graphic similar to the following will be generated:

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created by BC on 2/19/2025

reviewed by BC (US) on 2/19/2025