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From: sfeam <sfeam@users.sourceforge.net>
Newsgroups: comp.graphics.apps.gnuplot
Subject: Re: Plotting data points that are out of order
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Date: Thu, 01 Sep 2011 22:31:26 -0700
Organization: gnuplot development team
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Michael McGarry wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I'd like to plot a data file that has the points out of order. I'm
> using gnuplot now and it is plotting the points in the order in the
> file.
>
> Here is the data file contents:
> 
> 0.8    24
> 0.7    20
> 0.9    32
> 0.5    16
> 0.3    12
> 0.6    18
> 0.2     5
> 0.4    14
> 0.1     2
> 
> Does anyone know how I can get gnuplot to plot this data correctly?

You haven't really said what "correctly" means in this case.
I'm assuming you mean "sorted on the values in the first column".

> I'm hoping I do not have to use 'sort' to sort the lines.

What's wrong with sort?

Anyhow, perhaps you want 
   plot 'data' smooth unique with lines

But that has side effects you might or might not want.
Using 'sort' might indeed be a better option:

   plot '<sort data' with lines


> Thanks for any help.