Florian Kulzer wrote:
One more thing worth mentioning is that the subroutine trick can also be used to loop over the columns of a dataset (using the "column" command), for example if you have a data file with one common x-axis and 100 y-datasets (columns) that you want plot in the same graph. (Or can the plot command do this automatically these days?)
You might be looking for 'using'. Here is an example:
gnuplot> plot "force.dat" using 1:2 title 'Column', \
"force.dat" using 1:3 title 'Beam'
If you have three cols in a force.dat file.
This is shamelessly copied from Section 3.2 here:
http://www.duke.edu/~hpgavin/gnuplot.html
BTW, Gnuplot has come a long way from earlier versions (2.x, 3.x?).
Recent versions (> 4.0) are rich with features and have a nifty GUI to
manipulate 3-D data or surface plots with the mouse. The developers have
done some pretty neat stuff over there!
regards, ->HS