Reading gnuplot legend from csv

Question

I\'ve got a data.csv file which is structured like this:

n    John Smith stats     Sam Williams stats
1                23.4                   44.1
2                      


        

Answer 1

You say you have a csv file, so I assume your data file looks like this (and is saved in infile.csv):

n,John Smith stats,Sam Williams stats
1,23.4,44.1
2,32.1,33.5
3,42.0,42.1

If your version of Gnuplot is recent enough, you can use columnhead as the title argument:

echo "
  set datafile separator ','
  plot 'infile.csv' using 1:2 with lines title columnhead
" | gnuplot --persist

Or use the key option:

echo "
  set datafile separator ','
  set key autotitle columnhead
  plot 'infile.csv' using 1:2 with lines, '' using 1:3 with lines
" | gnuplot --persist

Edit - shorten headings

echo "
  set datafile separator ','
  set key autotitle columnhead
  plot '< sed -r \"1 s/,([^ ]+)[^,]+/,\1/g\" infile.csv' using 1:2 with lines, '' using 1:3 with lines
" | gnuplot --persist

Output:

Note this answer to a follow-up question may also be relevant.