Plot doesn't distinguish values because of one big measurement

Question

The code:

\documentclass{standalone}

\usepackage{tikz}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[scale=1.2]
  \begin{axis}[
    title=Find next vertex,
    xlabel=Cube's $dimension$,
    ylabel=$Time$ (sec),]
    \addplot coordinates {
        (2, 4.86e-07)
    (4, 1.548e-06)
    (8, 2.1081e-05)
    (16, 0.00440496)
    (32, 277.778)
    };
    \addplot [red,mark=*]  coordinates {
        (2, 8.17e-07)
    (4, 2.218e-06)
    (8, 3.0043e-05)
    (16, 0.00721884)
    (32, 296.945)    
    };
  \end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

The result:

As you, the first four measurements seem to be equal (which is not the real case) and this happens because the last measurement is significantly larger. Any idea how to cope with this problem?

By using log scale the small values distinguish, but the big ones collide. Maybe I should zoom-in, but no idea how to apply this in my case!

I would just use log scale. @JPi probably means something like http://tex.stackexchange.com/a/62778/586 — Torbjørn T., Feb 24 '17 at 19:01
Hmm @TorbjørnT. I think log scale is the way here too...You can a post an answer if you like! — gsamaras, Feb 24 '17 at 19:15
Please post complete examples people can compile - don't make people guess how to complete you code, which is a pain and quite unreliable. — cfr, Feb 25 '17 at 01:38

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 24 '17 at 19:25

Considering that the y-values span 8 orders of magnitude, I'd say a logarithmic scale is the way to go here. Also, don't use math mode for italic text, it's semantically wrong, and gives bad output. If you need italic, use \textit{dimension}.

\documentclass[border=5mm]{standalone}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[scale=1.2]
  \begin{axis}[
    title=Find next vertex,
    xlabel=Cube's dimension,
    ylabel=Time (sec),
    ymode=log]
    \addplot coordinates {
        (2, 4.86e-07)
    (4, 1.548e-06)
    (8, 2.1081e-05)
    (16, 0.00440496)
    (32, 277.778)
    };
    \addplot [red,mark=*]  coordinates {
        (2, 8.17e-07)
    (4, 2.218e-06)
    (8, 3.0043e-05)
    (16, 0.00721884)
    (32, 296.945)    
    };
  \end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Plot doesn't distinguish values because of one big measurement

1 Answers1