X Y {Z} <flag>rather than creating an actual plot on the current terminal. The flag character is "i" if the point is in the active range, "o" if it is out-of-range, or "u" if it is undefined. The data format is determined by the format of the axis tickmarks (see set format (p. )), and the columns are separated by single spaces. This can be useful if you want to generate contours and then save them for further use. The same method can be used to save interpolated data (see set samples (p. ) and set dgrid3d (p. )).
Syntax:
set table {"outfile" | $datablock} {append} {separator {whitespace|tab|comma|"<char>"}} plot <whatever> unset table
Subsequent tabular output is written to "outfile", if specified, otherwise it is written to stdout or other current value of set output. If outfile exists it will be replaced unless the append keyword is given. Alternatively, tabular output can be redirected to a named data block. Data block names start with '$', see also inline data (p. ). You must explicitly unset table in order to go back to normal plotting on the current terminal.
The separator character can be used to output csv (comma separated value) files. This mode only affects plot style with table. See plot with table (p. ).