Performance: scatter vs. line

October 14, 2009 4 Comments

Following my previous article on the undocumented behavior of the scatter function, one of my readers, Benoit Charles, reported a discovery that in many circumstances the line function generates identical plots much faster than scatter.
Unlike scatter, line does not enable specific data-point marker customization, although the colors could be modified. On the other hand, line only uses a single handle object, saving memory and system resources compared to scatter keeping a separate handle for each data point. So, if you just need to quickly plot a bunch of scattered points then line could be a better choice than scatter.
Here is a simple code snippet, which generates identical plots and shows the performance difference:

>> x=rand(1000,1); y=rand(1000,1);
>> tic, for idx=1:100, cla; h=scatter(x,y); end; toc
Elapsed time is 2.521322 seconds.
>> props = {'LineStyle','none','Marker','o','MarkerEdge','b','MarkerSize',6};
>> tic, for idx=1:100, cla; h=line([x,x],[y,y],props{:}); end; toc
Elapsed time is 0.333369 seconds.

In the past, I have posted about other undocumented performance aspects, comparing the documented ismember function with the undocumented ismembc and about cellfun‘s undocumented options. If you are aware of other similar functions having identical outputs and a significant performance difference, please let me know.

4 Responses

Naor October 14, 2009 at 13:05 Reply

Now this is really interesting. Now I’m curious about generating 1000 line objects with one data point/marker each, and saving into a handle vector? Is this what scatter is doing under the hood?

Benoit October 15, 2009 at 02:54 Reply

In this case, lines are faster than scatter only when colors are used and different for each point (???). Observe this script:

%% Scatter creation
T = 0;
cla
for i=1:10
	x = rand(1,1000);
	y = rand(1,1000);
	cla
	t = cputime;
	h = scatter( x,y );
	drawnow
	T = T + (cputime-t);
end
fprintf( 'Scatter creations: %.2fn', T )
 
%% Lines creation
T = 0;
cla
for i=1:10
	x = rand(1,1000);
	y = rand(1,1000);
	cla
	t = cputime;
	h = line( [x;x], [y;y], props{:} );
	drawnow
	T = T + (cputime-t);
end
fprintf( 'Line creations: %.2fn', T )
 
%% Scatter modification
T = 0;
cla
x = rand(1,1000);
y = rand(1,1000);
h = scatter(x,y);
for i=1:10
	y = rand(1,1000);
	t = cputime;
	set( h, 'YData', y );
	drawnow
	T = T + (cputime-t);
end
fprintf( 'nScatter modifications: %.2fn', T )
 
%% Lines modification
T = 0;
cla
x = rand(1,1000);
y = rand(1,1000);
h = line( [x;x], [y;y], props{:} );
for i=1:10
	y = rand(1,1000);
	t = cputime;
	set( h, {'YData'}, num2cell([y;y]',2) );
	drawnow
	T = T + (cputime-t);
end
fprintf( 'Line modifications: %.2fn', T )
 
%% Scatter color creation
T = 0;
cla
for i=1:10
	x = rand(1,1000);
	y = rand(1,1000);
	c = rand(1000,3);
	cla
	t = cputime;
	h = scatter( x,y,50,c );
	drawnow
	T = T + (cputime-t);
end
fprintf( 'nScatter color creation: %.2fn', T )
 
%% Lines color creation
T = 0;
cla
for i=1:10
	x = rand(1,1000);
	y = rand(1,1000);
	c = rand(1000,3);
	cla
	t = cputime;
	h = line( [x;x], [y;y], props{:} );
	set( h, {'MarkerEdgeColor'}, num2cell(c,2) );
	drawnow
	T = T + (cputime-t);
end
fprintf( 'Line color creation: %.2fn', T )
 
%% Scatter color modification
T = 0;
cla
x = rand(1,1000);
y = rand(1,1000);
c = rand(1000,3);
h = scatter(x,y,50,c);
for i=1:10
	y = rand(1,1000);
	t = cputime;
	set( h, 'YData', y );
	drawnow
	T = T + (cputime-t);
end
fprintf( 'nScatter color modification: %.2fn', T )
 
%% Lines modification
T = 0;
cla
x = rand(1,1000);
y = rand(1,1000);
c = rand(1000,3);
h = line( [x;x], [y;y], props{:} );
set( h, {'MarkerEdgeColor'}, num2cell(c,2) );
for i=1:10
	y = rand(1,1000);
	t = cputime;
	set( h, {'YData'}, num2cell([y;y]',2) );
	drawnow
	T = T + (cputime-t);
end
fprintf( 'Line color modification: %.2fn', T )

When you execute this script, you obtain:

Scatter creations: 0.76
Line creations: 9.53
 
Scatter modifications: 0.61
Line modifications: 1.51
 
Scatter color creation: 4.02
Line color creation: 17.07
 
Scatter color modification: 4.34
Line color modification: 1.53

Magic, isn’t it?
Sometimes, I wonder if Matlab was not developed at Hogwarts…

Naor October 15, 2009 at 15:41 Reply

very strange indeed.
damayi May 22, 2012 at 19:59 Reply

In my application, I will use line as much as possible.
What’s more, line is more simple and easy to control.

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