# 3.6 Linked axes and galleries of plots

In the previous chapter (Section 1.8.9), linked axes were introduced as a mechanism by which several axes on a single plot could be set to have the same range, or to be algebraically related to one another. Another common use for them is to make several plots on a multiplot canvas share common axes. Just as the following statement links two axes on a single plot to one another

    set axis x2 linked x

axes on the current plot can be linked to those of previous plots which are already on the multiplot canvas using syntax of the form:

    set axis x2 linked item 2 x

A common reason for doing this is to produce galleries of side-by-side plots. The following series of commands would produce a grid of plots, with axes only labelled along the bottom and left sides of the grid:

`set multiplot`
`set nodisplay`
`width=5.4`
`set width width`
`set xrange [0:23.999]`
`set yrange [0:0.11]`
`set nokey`
`set texthalign left`
`set textvalign center`
`# Plot 1 (bottom left)`
`set xlabel "$x$"`
`set ylabel ""`
`set label 1 "(c) fsteps" at graph width*0.03 , graph width/goldenRatio*0.9`
`plot "barchart1.dat" with fsteps, "" with points`
`set axis x linked item 1 x`
`set axis y linked item 1 y`
`# Plot 2 (bottom right)`
`set origin 1*width, 0*width/goldenRatio`
`set yformat ""`
`set label 1 "(d) histeps" at graph width*0.03 , graph width/goldenRatio*0.9`
`plot "barchart1.dat" with histeps, "" with points`
`# Plot 3 (top left)`
`set origin 0*width, 1*width/goldenRatio`
`set xformat "" ; set xlabel ""`
`unset yformat ; set ylabel texify("poissonPDF(x,18)")`
`set label 1 "(a) impulses" at graph width*0.03 , graph width/goldenRatio*0.9`
`plot "barchart1.dat" with impulses, "" with points`
`# Plot 4 (top right)`
`set origin 1*width, 1*width/goldenRatio`
`set yformat "" ; set ylabel ""`
`set label 1 "(b) steps" at graph width*0.03 , graph width/goldenRatio*0.9`
`plot "barchart1.dat" with steps, "" with points`
`# Now that we are finished preparing multiplot, turn display on`
`set display`
`refresh`

- 3.6.1 The `replot` command revisited