# plotSetXTicLabel¶

## Purpose¶

Controls the formatting and angle of x-axis tick labels.

## Format¶

plotSetXTicLabel(&myPlot, fmt[, angle])
Parameters
• &myPlot (struct pointer) – A plotControl structure pointer.

• fmt (string) –

the desired formatting for the x-axis tick labels.

• angle (scalar) – Optional argument, the angle in degrees at which to display the x-axis tick labels.

## Examples¶

### Time series¶

// Declare and initialize plotControl structure
struct plotControl myPlot;
myPlot = plotGetDefaults("xy");

y = rndn(5, 1);

plotSetXTicLabel(&myPlot, "YYYY-MO");

// Start the series in January 1982
dtstart = 198201;

// Specify the data to be monthly
frequency = 12;

// Draw the time series plot
plotTS(myPlot, dtstart, frequency, y);


The code above produces a graph with X-tick labels like the image below:

X-tick labels

Changing to format string to "MO/YYYY" will change the labels to appear like this:

01/1982


Changing to format string to "YYYY-QQ" will change the labels to appear like this:

1982-Q1


### Other than time series¶

// Declare and initialize plotControl structure
struct plotControl myPlot;
myPlot = plotGetDefaults("xy");

x = seqa(0.015, 0.015, 10);
y = cos(x.^2);

plotSetXTicLabel(&myPlot, "%.3f");

// Draw the graph, using our format specifier
plotXY(myPlot, x, y);


The code above produces a graph with X-tick labels like the image below:

XY formatted label

## Remarks¶

### Time series format specifier¶

• The following format specifiers are supported for the second input to plotSetXTicLabel(), fmt when the plot will be drawn with plotTS():

 YYYY 4 digit year YR Last two digits of year QQ Quarter of the year. This is calculated from the month number. M Number of month, 1-12 MO Number of month, 01-12 MMM The abbreviated localized month name (e.g. ‘Jan’ to ‘Dec’) MMMM The long localized month name (e.g. ‘January’ to ‘December’) d Number of day, 1-31 ddd The abbreviated localized day name (e.g. ‘Mon’ to ‘Sun’) dddd The long localized day name (e.g. ‘Monday’ to ‘Sunday’) DD Day of month, 01-31 HH Hour of day, 00-23 MI Minute of hour, 00-59 SS Second of minute, 00-59
• Extra text may be added to a time series X-tick label, by enclosing it in single-ticks. For example,

plotSetXTicLabel(myPlot, "HH:MI 'PM'");


would add the text PM to the end of the X-tick label, like this: 12:30 PM, or 02:15 PM. Note that the single-tick marks are not included as part of the label.

• To learn more about DT scalar format, see Date and Time Formats, Section 1.0.1, or the functions dttostr() and strtodt()

### Format specifier for other graph types¶

Graph types other than time series use a sprintf() style format string. The parameters of the format string are:

• precision - a literal scalar numeral, the number of digits after the decimal point

• format type - one of the following letters:

 d integer e scientific notation f floating point/decimal g either scientific or decimal, whichever is most compact

The format of the format string is:

"%.<precision><format type>"


Below are some examples of different format strings and how they would represent $$\pi$$

 “%.2f” 3.14 “%.4f” 3.1415 “%.2e” 3.14 “%.2g” 3.14 “%d” 3

Note

This function sets an attribute in a plotControl structure. It does not affect an existing graph, or a new graph drawn using the default settings that are accessible from the Tools > Preferences > Graphics menu.