Custom Dashed Plot Lines in PGFPLots

Question

I know that you can make a dashed line in pgfplots using the \addplot[dashed] option. However, the line that produces isn't dashed the way I'd like.

I found \pgfsetdash in the documentation for PGF, but I can't figure out how to use it on just one \addplot. If I include it anywhere within the tikzpicture environment, it changes all of the lines, including the axes. I thought that adding a second \pgfsetdash would change the style, but it doesn't seem to have an effect.

Any advice for creating custom dash styles in PGF plots?

Answer 1

You can use the key dash pattern=<pattern> to define a dash pattern in an \addplot:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\begin{document}


\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}
\addplot [dash pattern=on 4pt off 1pt on 4pt off 4pt] {x^2};
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}