Drawing arrow between plots (table datas)

Question

I use pfgplots to draw two sets of data, stored in .dat. Now I would like to automatically draw an arrow from one curve to the other, and only at the curves points. I tried to name the paths, but to no avail... Here is my minimum working example:

\documentclass[11pt]{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz,pgfplots,filecontents}
\pgfplotsset{compat=newest}
\usepgfplotslibrary{fillbetween}
\begin{filecontents*}{data1.dat}
a b
1 1
2 1.2
3 1.5
\end{filecontents*}
\begin{filecontents*}{data2.dat}
a b
1 1.5
2 1.75
3 1.6
\end{filecontents*}

\begin{document}
    \begin{tikzpicture}
        %graphique      
        \begin{axis}[]  
            \addplot[name path=c1,blue,thick,mark=*] plot[] table[x=a,y=b]{data1.dat};
            \addplot[name path=c2,black,thick,mark=*] plot[] table[x=a,y=b]{data2.dat};
            %\draw[red,->] (c1) -- (c2);

        \end{axis}          
    \end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

Which gives:

I would like to get (automatically from data points):

To generate this last picture I defined each arrow separately, for example for the last arrow: \draw[red,-latex,thick,shorten >=0.1em] (3,1.5) -- (3,1.6);

I tryed to use the fillbetween package to name the paths, but I have not been able to use it so far. Could I get something like : \draw[red,->] (c1) -- (c2); ?

Thanks a lot for your help!

So you are searching for something similar to https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/385766/95441, right? Are you able to adjust this solution on your own? — Stefan Pinnow, Nov 07 '18 at 21:17
Yes thanks a lot! I did see this post, maybe because I got to much focussed on putting "arrow" in my research... I came up with a solution thanks to you, I am going to post it — jeannej, Nov 07 '18 at 21:36

score 9 · Accepted Answer · 2018-11-07T22:44:28.190

Here is an alternative based on this nice answer. Its advantage is that it does not rely on the plot points having always the same distance. In fact, in your data set they don't, and that's the reason why in your answer the middle arrow is not vertical. (EDIT: Added your way to determine the number of rows \N and adjusted the inner sep of the nodes.)

\documentclass[11pt]{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz,pgfplots,filecontents}
\pgfplotsset{compat=newest}
\usepgfplotslibrary{fillbetween}
\begin{filecontents*}{data1.dat}
a b
1 1
2 1.2
3 1.5
\end{filecontents*}
\begin{filecontents*}{data2.dat}
a b
1 1.5
2 1.75
3 1.6
\end{filecontents*}

\pgfplotsset{
    name nodes near coords/.style={
        every node near coord/.append style={
            name=#1-\coordindex,
            alias=#1-last,
        },
    },
    name nodes near coords/.default=coordnode
}

\begin{document}
%reads data
\pgfplotstableread[]{data1.dat}{\dataA} %beware that "data1" would trigger an error => do not use numbers
\pgfplotstablegetrowsof{\dataA}
\pgfmathtruncatemacro{\N}{\pgfplotsretval-1} %get access to the number of points in data

\begin{tikzpicture}

\begin{axis}[
    nodes near coords={},nodes near coords style={anchor=center,inner sep=0pt}
    ]
\addplot[blue,thick,mark=*,   name nodes near coords=c] 
table[x=a,y=b]{data1.dat};
\addplot+[black,thick,mark=*,   name nodes near coords=d] table[x=a,y=b]{data2.dat};
\end{axis}
\foreach \X in {0,...,\N}
{\draw[red,-latex] (c-\X) -- (d-\X);}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

If you want the arrows to "touch" the plot marks, use nodes near coords style={anchor=center,inner sep=2pt} instead of nodes near coords style={anchor=center}. — , Nov 07 '18 at 21:57
Thanks a lot, that does answer my question! Though I keep the \pgfmathtruncatemacro{\N}{\pgfplotsretval-1} line in order to use \foreach \X in {0,...,\N} rather than setting the number of points manually. I'll mark your answer as accepted! — jeannej, Nov 07 '18 at 22:36
@jeannej Thanks! Yes, your way of reading out \N is much better. (I was already working on this answer when you posted yours, that's why it was not in, but I adapted it now.) — , Nov 07 '18 at 22:45

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 07 '18 at 21:45

Thanks to this previous post, I came up with this solution.

\documentclass[11pt]{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz,pgfplots}
\pgfplotsset{compat=newest}

\begin{filecontents*}{data1.dat}
a b
1 1
2 1.2
3 1.5
\end{filecontents*}
\begin{filecontents*}{data2.dat}
a b
1 1.5
2 1.75
3 1.6
\end{filecontents*}

%reads data
\pgfplotstableread[]{data1.dat}{\dataA} %beware that "data1" would trigger an error => do not use numbers
\pgfplotstablegetrowsof{\dataA}
\pgfmathtruncatemacro{\N}{\pgfplotsretval-1} %get access to the number of points in data

\begin{document}
    \begin{tikzpicture}
        %graphique      
        \begin{axis}[]  
            \addplot[blue,thick,mark=*] plot[] table[x=a,y=b]{data1.dat} 
                \foreach \i in {0,...,\N} {coordinate [pos=\i/\N] (a\i)};
            \addplot[black,thick,mark=*] plot[] table[x=a,y=b]{data2.dat}
                \foreach \i in {0,...,\N} {coordinate [pos=\i/\N] (b\i)};
        \end{axis}  
        \foreach \i in {0,...,\N} {
            \draw[red,-latex,thick,shorten >=0.1em] (a\i) -- (b\i);
        }       
    \end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

Which gives:

However you'll notice a slight shift of my middle arrow. I think this comes from my data not being evenly distributed... Would you have any insight on this ?

Drawing arrow between plots (table datas)

2 Answers2