In the default situation, gnuplot expects to see three, four, or six numbers on each line of the data file -- either
(x, y, ydelta), (x, y, ylow, yhigh), (x, y, xdelta), (x, y, xlow, xhigh), (x, y, xdelta, ydelta), or (x, y, xlow, xhigh, ylow, yhigh).
The x coordinate must be specified. The order of the numbers must be exactly as given above, though the using qualifier can manipulate the order and provide values for missing columns. For example,
plot 'file' with errorlines plot 'file' using 1:2:(sqrt($1)) with xerrorlines plot 'file' using 1:2:($1-$3):($1+$3):4:5 with xyerrorlines
The last example is for a file containing an unsupported combination of relative x and absolute y errors. The using entry generates absolute x min and max from the relative error.
The y error bar is a vertical line plotted from (x, ylow) to (x, yhigh). If ydelta is specified instead of ylow and yhigh, ylow = y - ydelta and yhigh = y + ydelta are derived. If there are only two numbers on the record, yhigh and ylow are both set to y. The x error bar is a horizontal line computed in the same fashion.
The error bars have crossbars at each end unless set bars is used (see set bars (p. ) for details).
If autoscaling is on, the ranges will be adjusted to include the error bars.
See plot using (p. ), plot with (p. ), and set style (p. ) for more information.