How can I plot data with a non-numeric X-axis?

Question

I have a series of performance tests I would like to show as a graph. I have a set of tests (about 10) which I run on a set of components (currently 3), and get throughput results.

The Y-axis would be the throughput result from the test, and the X-axis should have an abbreviated name of the test, with the results from the various components I'm testing. So, for each X label (eg. retrieve20Items, store20Items) there would be 3 different results above it, one for each of the three components I'm testing, each colour-coded and referenced in the legend.

Is this non-numeric x-axis something that I can do with gnuplot? This is being done on a linux platform, so Windows-only tools won't work for me.

Answer 1

See this very helpful page. Essentially you create a number-label mapping using

set xtics ("lbl1" 1, "lbl2" 2, "lbl3" 3, "lbl4" 4)

Then plot as normal.