In the discussion a "point" is a datum defined by a single record in the file; "block" here will mean the same thing as "datablock" (see glossary (p. )).
Syntax:
plot 'file' every {<point_incr>} {:{<block_incr>} {:{<start_point>} {:{<start_block>} {:{<end_point>} {:<end_block>}}}}}
The data points to be plotted are selected according to a loop from 5#5start_point6#6 to 5#5end_point6#6 with increment 5#5point_incr6#6 and the blocks according to a loop from 5#5start_block6#6 to 5#5end_block6#6 with increment 5#5block_incr6#6.
The first datum in each block is numbered '0', as is the first block in the file.
Note that records containing unplottable information are counted.
Any of the numbers can be omitted; the increments default to unity, the start values to the first point or block, and the end values to the last point or block. If every is not specified, all points in all lines are plotted.
Examples:
every :::3::3 # selects just the fourth block ('0' is first) every :::::9 # selects the first 10 blocks every 2:2 # selects every other point in every other block every ::5::15 # selects points 5 through 15 in each block
See
http://www.gnuplot.info/demo/simple.htmlsimple plot demos (simple.dem)
,
http://www.gnuplot.info/demo/surface1.htmlNon-parametric splot demos
, and
http://gnuplot.sourceforge.net/demo/surface2.htmlParametric splot demos
.