GCF GCF Get Current Figure

Usage

Returns the figure number for the current figure (which is also its handle,
and can be used to set properties of the current figure using set).  
The syntax for its use
is

  figure_number = gcf

where figure_number is the number of the active figure (also the handle of
the figure).

Note that figures have handles, just like axes, images, plots, etc.  However
the handles for figures match the figure number (while handles for other 
graphics objects tend to be large, somewhat arbitrary integers).  So, to 
retrieve the colormap of the current figure, you could 
use get(gcf,'colormap'), or to obtain the colormap for figure 3, 
use get(3,'colormap').
