General Tikz/PGFplots snippets

.general-tikz-pgfplots-snippets.md

General Tikz/PGFplots snippets

• MWE
• Default settings
• Useful troubleshootings
• General information

general_information.md

• In Tikz, some commands are designed to handle the necessary expansions internally. When they processes its coordinates, it internally expands the content appropriately. In contrast, other TikZ commands don't handle expansions the same way, and using \edef helps to ensure that the content is expanded at the right time. For instance, \addplot: This command is designed to handle expansions internally. When you provide coordinates to \addplot, it knows how to process them, and you don't need to worry about explicit expansions. \coordinate: This command, when used directly, might not handle expansions in the same way. Therefore, using \edef and \noexpand is a way to force the expansion at the right time. \noexpand is used to protect the subsequent token from immediate expansion. Without \noexpand, \coordinate might get expanded at the wrong time.

\documentclass[beamer,crop]{standalone}
\usepackage{pgfplots}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
    \begin{axis}
        \pgfplotsinvokeforeach{1,2,3}{
            \addplot[blue, mark=square, ycomb] coordinates {(#1, {#1^2 - 1})};
            \edef\temp{\noexpand\coordinate (test#1) at (axis cs:#1,{#1^2 - 1});}
            \temp
        }
    \end{axis}

    Access the coordinates after the axis environment
    \foreach \w in {1,2,3} {
        \node at (test\w) {test\w};
    }
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

• The \pgfplotsinvokeforeach command is specifically designed for use within the pgfplots package and is often recommended for iterating over values when creating plots. It has some advantages over the more general \foreach command from TikZ.

mwe.tex

\documentclass[varwidth=true, border=2pt]{standalone}
% \documentclass[beamer,crop]{standalone} % for Beamer

\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{arrows,positioning}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
    % Your Codes should be here
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

nice_arrow_tip.tex

\tikzset{ar/.style={-latex,shorten >=-1pt, shorten <=-1pt}}

nice_includestandalone.tex

% see https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/51761/211183

%%%
% tikzpic.tex
\documentclass[crop,tikz]{standalone}% 'crop' is the default for v1.0, before it was 'preview'
%\usetikzlibrary{...}% tikz package already loaded by 'tikz' option
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
  \draw (0,0) -- (10,10); % ...
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}
%%%

%%%
% main.tex
% compile with `pdflatex -shell-escape main` or `xelatex  -shell-escape main`
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[mode=buildnew]{standalone}% requires -shell-escape
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
Lorem ipsum ...

\begin{figure}[htbp]
    \centering
    \includestandalone[width=.8\textwidth]{tikzpic}
    \caption{Distribution of the residuals.}
    \label{fig:distribution}
\end{figure}

Lorem ipsum ...
\end{document}
%%%

pgf_plots_settings.tex

\pgfplotsset{
  compat=1.17, % Specify the compatibility version
  nice_axis/.style={
    xlabel={$x$},
    ylabel={$y$},
    title={Sine Function},
    grid=both,
    axis lines=middle,
    samples=100,
    domain=-2*pi:2*pi,
    xmax=7,
    xmin=-7,
    ymax=1.5,
    ymin=-1.5,
    xtick={-2*pi, -3*pi/2, -pi, -pi/2, 0, pi/2, pi, 3*pi/2, 2*pi},
    xticklabels={$-2\pi$, $-\frac{3\pi}{2}$, $-\pi$, $-\frac{\pi}{2}$, 0, $\frac{\pi}{2}$, $\pi$, $\frac{3\pi}{2}$, $2\pi$},
    ytick={-1, 0, 1},
    legend pos=outer north east,
  }
}

sinc.tex

\pgfmathdeclarefunction{sinc}{1}{%
    \pgfmathparse{(#1==0 ? 1: sin(pi*#1 r))/(#1==0 ? 1: pi*#1)}%
}