## Table

When table mode is enabled, plot and splot commands print out a multicolumn text table of X Y {Z} R values rather than creating an actual plot on the current terminal. The character R takes on one of three values: `"`i`"` if the point is in the active range, `"`o`"` if it is out-of-range, or `"`u`"` if it is undefined. The data format is determined by the format of the axis tickmarks (see set format (p. )), and the columns are separated by single spaces. This can be useful if you want to generate contours and then save them for further use. The same method can be used to save interpolated data (see set samples (p. ) and set dgrid3d (p. )).

Syntax:

         set table {"outfile" | $datablock}
         plot <whatever>
         unset table

Tabular output is written to the named file, if any, otherwise it is written to the current value of set output. Alternatively, tabular output can be redirected to a named data block. Data block names start with '$', see also inline data (p. ). You must explicitly unset table in order to go back to normal plotting on the current terminal.

To avoid any style-dependent processing of the input data (smoothing, errorbar expansion, secondary range checking, etc), or to increase the number of columns that can be tabulated, you can use the keyword `"`table`"` instead of a normal plot style. For example

        set table
        plot <file> using 1:2:3:4:5:6:7:8:9:10 with table