# pgfplots: plot smaller range of table and still use enlargelimits=true

I am using pgfplots to plot two simple (x,y)-plots of the same data from a table file. The first plot shows all of the data points and in the second plot I want to zoom in on some specific range of the data. However when I use xmin and xmax to restrict the range the first and last point gets placed on the axis box. I want to add a little space between the axes and the points so I try to set enlargelimits=true but then points outside the range gets shown and are not clipped away as I thought they would be.

Is there a way to do this without having to copy the desired data-point into a new table?

Heres an example of what I try to do: I have the data file plotdata.dat:

# plotdata.dat
x   y
0   0
1   1
2   4
3   9
4   16
5   25
6   36
7   49
8   64
9   81
10  100
11  121
12  144


And my latex document looks like this:

\documentclass[11pt]{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{pgfplots}

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}[xmin=1, xmax=11, enlargelimits=true]
\addplot[only marks] table[x index=0, y index=1] {plotdata.dat};
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}


Then even though xmin=1 the plot shows also the x=0 point. I don't want to just set the axis limits so that only the range is shown but instead ignore points outside the range...

-
Welcome to LaTeX! Welcome to TeX.sx! Please add a minimal working example (MWE) that illustrates your problem. Also search for the enlargelimits command in the pgfplots manual for different options regarding the axis scales etc. –  percusse Aug 5 '12 at 14:30
Thanks! I've already looked through the manual and tried different options but they don't seem to help me. I'll edit my question to show an example... –  Filip A Aug 5 '12 at 15:23

In other words: even if you choose xmin and xmax in a way which hides all data points, pgfplots will still draw every data point.
If you want to select/discard subsets of your data points, you should study the filtering mechanisms, in particular: the restrict x to domain=1:9999 key with appropriate values. Filtering means to drop single coordinates. The unbounded coords=discard|jump key controls how pgfplots should react (either as if it never saw the discarded points at all or by introducing jumps).