# Plot reciprocal function with tkiz

I need to plot f(x) = 1 / x in LaTeX and am trying to with Tikz. I haven't found a way to set the vertical range, so the values go out of bound around x=0.

Using gnuplot directly doesn't seem to be an option because the fix presented here fails.

\begin{frame}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw[->] (-10, 0) -- (10, 0) node[right] {$x$};
\draw[->] (0, -10) -- (0, 10) node[above] {$y$};
\draw[color=red, domain=-10:10] plot[id=x] function{1/x} node[right] { $f(x) = x$ };
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{frame}


I'm not set on Tikz, if there are other options I am open to them.

-

With TikZ version 2 :

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}[scale=.5]
\draw[->] (-10, 0) -- (10, 0) node[right] {$x$};
\draw[->] (0, -10) -- (0, 10) node[above] {$y$};
\draw[color=red, domain=-10:-0.1,samples=200] plot[id=x1] function{1/x};
\draw[color=red, domain=0.1:10,samples=200] plot[id=x2] function{1/x} node[below right = 6pt] { $f(x) =1/x$ };
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}


-
You can use gnuplot but not with gnuplottex. You can see the manual to see how to plot a function with gnuplot. After you can try pgfplots or tkz-fct. –  Alain Matthes Jun 16 '11 at 16:37
doesn't work here: ! Number too big. \pgftemp@y. I'm using the beamer package –  Otto Allmendinger Jun 16 '11 at 16:49
@Otto Allmendinger Altermundus example compiles on my system (TeX Live 2009). It also compiles if I change the documentclass to beamer. –  N.N. Jun 16 '11 at 17:46
@Otto Allmendinger What is your version of pgfmath ? You can also modify the domains : -10:-0.1 and 0.1:10 –  Alain Matthes Jun 16 '11 at 17:51
@Otto Allmendinger the last version is better I change the domains and remove the clip and put at the right place the name of the function. –  Alain Matthes Jun 16 '11 at 18:00

The pgfplots package has a plot drawing function that takes the parameter restrict y to domain. It takes care of the clipping and doesn't connect the points on the left and right of the singularity.

\documentclass{standalone}

\usepackage{pgfplots}

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}[
restrict y to domain=-10:10,
samples=1000,
minor tick num=1,
xmin = -10, xmax = 10,
ymin = -10, ymax = 10,
unbounded coords=jump,
axis x line=middle,
axis y line=middle]