Gnuplot types of error bars

Question

Can we change the type of line used by gnuplot in the errorbars? This is my gnuplot code:

set terminal postscript eps color
set output '| epstopdf --filter --outfile=plot.pdf'
set xlabel  "Simulation days"
set xtics nomirror
set ylabel  "Time (seconds)"
set ytics nomirror
set logscale y
set key left top
plot "data1.csv" using 1:($2/1000):($3/1000) with yerrorbars pt 5,\
"data2.csv" using 1:($2/1000):($3/1000) with yerrorbars pt 7

The error bars from the first plot are different from the second one. The first line is solid, but the second is dotted. Its possible to define the style of the error bar?

Answer 1

In your case, the easiest option is to use the solid terminal option to have only solid lines:

set terminal postscript eps color solid lw 3
set output '| epstopdf --filter --outfile=plot.pdf'

set samples 10
set xrange [0:10]
unset key

plot '+' using 1:1:(0.2*$1) w yerrorbars, \
     '' using 1:(1.5*$1):(0.1*$1) w yerrorbars

Result with 4.6.4:

Alternatively, you can use lt 1 lc 2 for the second plot, which selects the line pattern of the first linetype (which is solid), and the color of the second one:

plot '+' using 1:1:(0.2*$1) w yerrorbars, \
     '' using 1:(1.5*$1):(0.1*$1) lt 1 lc 2 w yerrorbars