How do I set axis label with column header in gnuplot?

Question

My question is very simple. Suppose I have a datafile with column headers, like as follows

first second
1 1 
2 1
3 6
4 9

In gnuplot how do

Answer 1

To elaborate the suggestion of @andyras, here is how you can do it:

datafile = 'filename.txt'
firstrow = system('head -1 '.datafile)
set xlabel word(firstrow, 1)
set ylabel word(firstrow, 2)
plot datafile using 1:2

You must plot with the explicit using statement, otherwise gnuplot will complain about bad data on line 1.