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.

    • Time series graphs use the same formatting type as function dttostr().

    • Other graph types use a sprintf() style formatting string. See Remarks below for more details.

  • 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:

_images/gauss15_psxtl_1.png

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:

_images/gauss15_psxtl_1.png

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”

3.14e+00

“%.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.

See also

Functions dttostr(), strtodt(), plotSetXLabel(), plotSetXTicInterval(), plotSetTicLabelFont()

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