How to Create Reproducible Code Examples

Sharing a reproducible code example with an issue or question increases the likelihood that it will be addressed rapidly and accurately. Questions with absent or incomplete code examples are unlikely to receive an accurate or timely responses, and may even be closed the labor required to reproduce the issue is high. This page describes strategies for creating code examples that are easy for others to run and evaluate.

Static Plot

The preferred method for sharing ScottPlot code examples is to create a new .NET Console Application that demonstrates the topic and saves the result as an image.

Step 1: Create a new .NET console project

Step 2: Add the ScottPlot NuGet package

Step 3: Create a plot and save it as an image

double[] dataX = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 };
double[] dataY = { 1, 4, 9, 16, 25 };

ScottPlot.Plot myPlot = new();
myPlot.Add.Scatter(dataX, dataY);

myPlot.SavePng("quickstart.png", 400, 300);

Interactive Plot from a Console Application

If your topic relates to mouse interactivity, it may be necessary to demonstrate it using a GUI. The preferred method is to create a .NET Console Application that launches Windows Form containing a ScottPlot.

Step 1: Create a new .NET console project

Step 2: Add the ScottPlot and ScottPlot.WinForms NuGet packages

Step 3: Modify the csproj file’s property group to support Windows Forms

<OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
<TargetFramework>net6.0-windows</TargetFramework>
<ImplicitUsings>enable</ImplicitUsings>
<Nullable>enable</Nullable>
<UseWindowsForms>true</UseWindowsForms>

Step 4: Create a plot and display it interactively

// create a plot
ScottPlot.Plot plt = new();
plt.Add.Signal(Generate.Sin());
plt.Add.Signal(Generate.Cos());

// display it in a Windows Form
Form form = new() { Width = 600, Height = 400 };
ScottPlot.WinForms.FormsPlot formsPlot1 = new() { Dock = DockStyle.Fill };
formsPlot1.Reset(plt);
formsPlot1.Refresh();
form.Controls.Add(formsPlot1);
form.ShowDialog();