How to plot column in unix in one line

Question

I would like to plot a column of data output by a script in unix in just one line. For example, something like

script | cut -f2 -d ',' | gnuplot ....

Answer 1

You have to give gnuplot a plotting instruction in the command line, and can use the data piping special file '-'.

E.g.,

echo "1\n2\n4\n8\n16" | gnuplot -e "plot '-' u 0:1 w linespoints" -persist

The -persist option allows to keep the window open. If you want to produce a PDF rather, you can use:

echo "1\n2\n4\n8\n16" | gnuplot -e "set term pdf; set output 'plot.pdf'; plot '-' u 0:1 w linespoints"