The most common way to use the plot command is to use the first calling sequence, plot(expr, x=a..b), where an expression in one variable is specified over a given range on the horizontal axis. An example is plot(u^2-5, u=-2..3).

The second calling sequence is in operator form.  This allows you to use a procedure or operator to specify the function to be plotted.  The second argument, if given, must be a range; note that no variable name is used with operator form.  An example is plot(sin, -Pi..Pi).

If f is a procedure or operator, the first calling sequence, plot(f(x), x=a..b), is similar to but not the same as the second calling sequence, plot(f, a..b). The main difference is that with the first calling sequence, f(x) is first evaluated with the symbolic argument x, and then numeric values are substituted for x in the result; whereas with the second calling sequence, the numeric values are passed directly to the procedure f.

For the operator form, if the range is not provided, the default range is $-2\mathrm{\pi }..2\mathrm{\pi }$ for trigonometric functions and $\mathrm{-10}..10$ otherwise. For the expression form, Maple has more complicated rules for finding a reasonable domain for the expression. For more information about plot ranges, see the plot/range help page. For more details about plotting functions, see the plot/function help page.

In the third calling sequence, plot([expr1, expr2, t=c..d]), the function is specified in parametric form.  The first argument is a list having three components: an expression for the x-coordinate, an expression for the y-coordinate, and the parameter range. For example, to plot a circle, use plot([sin(t), cos(t), t=0..2*Pi]).

The fourth calling sequence shows the operator-form of a parametric plot. Here, the first argument is a list containing two procedures or operators, specifying the x- and y-coordinates respectively, and a range.  For example, to plot a circle, use plot([sin, cos, 0..2*Pi]).

For more information about parametric plots, see the plot/parametric help page.

The last two calling sequences are for generating a curve from n points. In the calling sequence plot(m), m is an n by 2 Matrix or a list of n 2-component lists [u, v].  An example is plot([[0, 1], [1, 2], [2, 5], [3, 8]]).

In the calling sequence plot(v1, v2), v1 and v2 are two n-dimensional Vectors or two lists containing n numerical values.  They correspond to the x-coordinates and y-coordinates respectively.  An example is plot(Vector([0, 1, 2, 3]), Vector([1, 2, 5, 8])).

The Matrix, Vector, and list entries must all be real constants.  By default, a line going through the given points is generated. If you wish to see points plotted instead of a line, add the style=point option.

Multiple curves can be plotted by replacing the first argument with a list or set of items, in every calling sequence except the last. Options such as color or thickness can be specified for each curve by using a list of values as the right-hand side of the option equation. In this situation, the first argument to the plot command must also be a list; if it is a set, the order of the plots might not be preserved.

A default color is assigned to each of the multiple curves. To customize the selection of colors, use the plots[setcolors] command.

For a discussion of computational efficiency of the plot command, and in particular its adaptive and redraw options, see plot/computation.

Maple includes an Interactive Plot Builder.  Using the PlotBuilder command, you can build plots interactively.  For more information, see PlotBuilder and Using the Interactive Plot Builder.

Other interactive plotting commands are available in the Student and Statistics packages.

$\mathrm{plot}\left(\cos \left(x\right)+\sin \left(x\right)\,x=0..\mathrm{\pi }\right)$

$\mathrm{plot}\left(\cos \left(x\right)+\sin \left(x\right)\right)$

$\mathrm{plot}\left(x^2-6x\right)$

$\mathrm{plot}\left(\tan \,-\mathrm{\pi }..\mathrm{\pi }\right)$

$\mathrm{plot}\left(\tan \right)$

plot(proc (x) if x < 2 and -1 < x then x^2 else x+2 end if end proc);

$f≔x\mapsto \mathrm{ifelse}\left(\mathrm{type}\left(x\&comma;'\mathrm{negative}'\right)\&comma;-x\&comma;x^2\right)$

$f≔x\mapsto \mathrm{ifelse}\left(\mathrm{type}\left(x\&comma;'\mathrm{negative}'\right)\&comma;-x\&comma;x^2\right)$

$\mathrm{plot}\left(f\&comma;-1..1\right)$

$\mathrm{plot}\left(f\left(x\right)\&comma;x=-1..1\right)$

$\mathrm{plot}\left('f\left(x\right)'\&comma;x=-1..1\right)$

$\mathrm{plot}\left(\left[\sin \left(t\right)\&comma;\cos \left(t\right)\&comma;t=-\mathrm{\pi }..\mathrm{\pi }\right]\right)$

$\mathrm{plot}\left(\sin \left(t\right)\&comma;t\right)$

$\mathrm{plot}\left(\left[x^3\&comma;x\&comma;x=0..3\mathrm{\pi }\right]\&comma;-8..8\&comma;-10..10\&comma;\mathrm{coords}=\mathrm{polar}\right)$

$\mathrm{plot}\left(\cos +\sin \&comma;0..\mathrm{\pi }\right)$

$\mathrm{plot}\left(\tan \&comma;-\mathrm{\pi }..\mathrm{\pi }\right)$

$\mathrm{plot}\left(\sin \right)$

$\mathrm{plot}\left(\left[\sin \&comma;\cos \&comma;-\mathrm{\pi }..\mathrm{\pi }\right]\right)$

$\mathrm{plot}\left(\left[\sin \left(x\right)\&comma;x-\frac{1}{6}{x}^3\right]\&comma;x=0..2\&comma;\mathrm{color}=\left[''DarkGreen''\&comma;''NavyBlue''\right]\&comma;\mathrm{style}=\left[\mathrm{point}\&comma;\mathrm{line}\right]\right)$

$\mathrm{plot}\left(\left\{x-\frac{1}{6}{x}^3\&comma;\sin \left(x\right)\right\}\&comma;x=0..2\right)$

$l≔\left[\mathrm{`\$`}\left(\left[n\&comma;\sin \left(n\right)\right]\&comma;n=1..10\right)\right]\&colon;$

$\mathrm{plot}\left(l\&comma;x=0..15\&comma;\mathrm{style}=\mathrm{point}\&comma;\mathrm{symbol}=\mathrm{circle}\right)$

$s≔t\mapsto \frac{100}{100+{\left(t-\frac{\mathrm{\pi }}{2}\right)}^8}\&colon;$$r≔t\mapsto s\left(t\right)\cdot \left(2-\sin \left(7\cdot t\right)-\frac{\cos \left(30\cdot t\right)}{2}\right)\&colon;$

$\mathrm{plot}\left(\left[r\left(t\right)\&comma;t\&comma;t=-\frac{\mathrm{\pi }}{2}..\frac{3}{2}\mathrm{\pi }\right]\&comma;\mathrm{numpoints}=2000\&comma;\mathrm{coords}=\mathrm{polar}\&comma;\mathrm{axes}=\mathrm{none}\right)$

$\mathrm{plot}\left(\left[\sin \left(4x\right)\&comma;x\&comma;x=0..2\mathrm{\pi }\right]\&comma;\mathrm{coords}=\mathrm{polar}\&comma;\mathrm{thickness}=3\right)$

$\mathrm{plot}\left(\left[\sin \left(x\right)\&comma;\cos \left(x\right)\&comma;x=-\mathrm{\pi }..\mathrm{\pi }\right]\&comma;\mathrm{title}=''A\; Circle\; in\; Cartesian\; Coordinates''\right)$

$\mathrm{plot}\left(\left[\sin \left(x\right)\&comma;\cos \left(x\right)\&comma;x=-\mathrm{\pi }..\mathrm{\pi }\right]\&comma;\mathrm{axes}=''framed''\right)$

$\mathrm{plot}\left(\left[\sin \left(x\right)\cos \left(x\right)\&comma;\frac{1}{5}{x}^2\&comma;\frac{1}{7}{x}^2\right]\&comma;x=-\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{\pi }..\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{\pi }\&comma;\mathrm{color}=\left[''Blue''\&comma;''Magenta''\&comma;''Cyan''\right]\right)$

$\mathrm{plot}\left(\left[x\&comma;\tan \left(x\right)\&comma;x=-\mathrm{\pi }..\mathrm{\pi }\right]\&comma;-4..4\&comma;-5..5\&comma;\mathrm{tickmarks}=\left[8\&comma;10\right]\right)$

$\mathrm{plot}\left(\tan \left(x\right)\&comma;x=-2\mathrm{\pi }..2\mathrm{\pi }\&comma;y=-4..4\right)$

$\mathrm{plot}\left(\mathrm{piecewise}\left(\mathrm{abs}\left(\mathrm{floor}\left(x\right)\right)::\mathrm{even}\&comma;2x\&comma;2x+1\right)\&comma;x=-5..5\right)$

$\mathrm{plot}\left(\mathrm{piecewise}\left(\mathrm{abs}\left(\mathrm{floor}\left(x\right)\right)::\mathrm{even}\&comma;2x\&comma;2x+1\right)\&comma;x=-5..5\&comma;\mathrm{discont}\right)$

$\mathrm{plot}\left(\sin \left(x\right)\&comma;x=0..\mathrm{\infty }\right)$

$\mathrm{plot}\left(\right)$

Empty plot with a specified boundary.

$\mathrm{plot}\left(x=0..2\mathrm{\pi }\&comma;\mathrm{axes}=\mathrm{boxed}\right)$