Specify x-axis tick label format
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Syntax
xtickformat(fmt)
xtickformat(datefmt)
xtickformat(durationfmt)
xtickformat(ax,___)
xfmt = xtickformat
xfmt = xtickformat(ax)
Description
example
xtickformat(fmt) setsthe format for numeric x-axis tick labels. Forexample, specify fmt as 'usd' todisplay the labels in U.S. dollars.
example
xtickformat(datefmt) setsthe format for labels that show dates or times. For example, specify datefmt as 'MM-dd-yy' todisplay dates such as 04-19-16. This option appliesonly to an x-axis with datetime values.
example
xtickformat(durationfmt) setsthe format for labels that show durations. For example, specify durationfmt as 'm' todisplay the durations in minutes. This option applies only to an x-axiswith duration values.
example
xtickformat(ax,___) usesthe axes specified by ax instead of the currentaxes. Specify ax as the first input argument.
example
xfmt = xtickformatxfmt isa character vector of a numeric format, date format, or duration format.
xfmt = xtickformat(ax)ax insteadof the current axes.
Examples
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Display Tick Labels in Dollars
Open Live Script
Display x-axis tick labels in dollars with and without decimal values.
Create a bar chart. Display the tick labels along the x-axis in dollars.
x = 0:20:100;y = [88 67 98 43 45 65];bar(x,y)xtickformat('usd')
Query the tick label format. MATLAB® returns the format as a character vector containing the formatting operators.
fmt = xtickformat
Display the tick labels with no decimal values by tweaking the numeric format to use a precision value of 0 instead of 2.
xtickformat('$%,.0f')
Display Text After Each Tick Label
Open Live Script
After creating a line chart, display the tick labels along the x-axis with the text "GHz" after each value.
x = 1:10;y = [.17 .25 .27 .28 .3 .32 .33 .34 .345 .35];plot(x,y,'-V')xtickformat('%g GHz')
Control Number of Decimals Displayed
Open Live Script
After creating a scatter plot, display the x-axis tick labels with two decimal places. Control the decimal places by passing xtickformat a character vector of a numeric format that uses fixed-point notation for the conversion character and a precision value of 2.
x = linspace(0,1,100);y = randn(1,100).*cos(x);scatter(x,y)xtickformat('%.2f')
Format for Date Tick Labels
Open Live Script
Create a line plot with datetime values along the x-axis. Then, change the format of the dates.
t = datetime(2014,6,28) + caldays(1:10);y = rand(1,10);plot(t,y);xtickformat('MM-dd')
Format for Duration Tick Labels
Open Live Script
Create a line plot with duration values along the x-axis. Then, change the format of the tick labels.
t = 0:seconds(30):minutes(3);y = rand(1,7);plot(t,y)xtickformat('mm:ss')
Query Current Tick Label Format
Open Live Script
Create a scatter plot and display the x-axis tick labels in Euro. Then, query the tick label format. MATLAB® returns the format as a character vector containing the formatting operators.
x = rand(100,1);y = rand(100,1);scatter(x,y)xtickformat('eur')
xfmt = xtickformat
xfmt = '\x20AC%,.2f'
Tick Label Format for Specific Axes
Open Live Script
Starting in R2019b, you can display a tiling of plots using the tiledlayout and nexttile functions. Call the tiledlayout function to create a 2-by-1 tiled chart layout. Call the nexttile function to create the axes objects ax1 and ax2. Plot into each of the axes. Specify the tick label format for the x-axis of the lower plot by specifying ax2 as the first input argument to xtickformat. Display the tick labels in U.S. dollars.
tiledlayout(2,1)ax1 = nexttile;plot(ax1,rand(6))ax2 = nexttile;plot(ax2,rand(6))xtickformat(ax2,'usd')
Input Arguments
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fmt — Format for numeric tick labels
'%g' (default) | character vector | string scalar
Format for numeric tick labels, specified as a character vector or string scalar. You can specify one of the formats listed in this table. Alternatively, you can specify a custom format.
| Predefined Format | Description |
|---|---|
'usd' | U.S. dollars. This option is equivalent using |
'eur' | Euro. This option is equivalent to using |
'gbp' | British pound. This option is equivalent to using |
'jpy' | Japanese yen. This option is equivalent to using |
'degrees' | Display degree symbol after values. This option is equivalent to using |
'percentage' | Display percent sign after values. This option is equivalent to using |
'auto' | Default format of |
Example: xtickformat('usd')
Custom Numeric Format
You can specify a custom numeric format by creating a character vector or string containing identifiers.
Identifiers are optional, except the percent sign and conversion character. Construct the format in this order:
One or more flags — Options such as adding a plus sign before positive values. For a full list of options, see the table of Optional Flags.
Field width — Minimum number of characters to print in the tick label. Specify the field width as an integer value. If the number of significant digits in the tick value is smaller than the field width, then the label is padded with spaces.
Precision — Number of digits to the right of the decimal point or the number of significant digits, depending on the conversion character. Specify the precision as an integer value.
Conversion character — Value type. For a full list of options, see the table of Conversion Characters. If you specify a conversion that does not fit the data, then MATLAB® overrides the specified conversion, and uses
%e.
Also, you can specify literal text at the beginning or end of the format. To print a single quotation mark, use ''. To print a percent character, use %%.
Example: xtickformat('%.2f') displays the values using fixed-point notation with two decimal places.
Example: xtickformat('$%.2f') displays a dollar sign before each value.
Example: xtickformat('%.2f million') displays million after each value.
Optional Flags
| Identifier | Description | Example of Numeric Format |
|---|---|---|
, | Display commas every three digits, such as '1,000'. | '%,4.4g' |
+ | Print the sign character (+) for positive values, such as '+100'. | '%+4.4g' |
0 | Pad the field width with leading zeros instead of spaces, such as '0100'. | '%04.4g' |
– | Left-justify, which pads the end of the value with spaces instead of the beginning. For example, if the field width is 4, then this flag formats the label as '100 ' instead of ' 100'. | '%-4.4g' |
# | For the | '%#4.4g' |
Conversion Characters
| Identifier | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
d or i | Signed integer with base 10. The precision value indicates the number of significant digits. | '%.4d' displays π as 0003. |
f | Fixed-point notation. The precision value indicates the number of decimal places. | '%.4f' displays π as 3.1416. |
e | Exponential notation. The precision value indicates the number of decimal places. | '%.4e' displays π as 3.1416x100. |
g | The more compact version of e or f, with no trailing zeros. The precision value indicates the maximum number of decimal places. | '%.4g' displays π as 3.1416. |
datefmt — Format for dates and times
'auto' | character vector | string scalar
Format for dates and times, specified as 'auto', a character vector, or a string scalar. The default format is based on the data.
Example: xtickformat('yyyy-MM-dd') displaysa date and time such as 2016-04-19.
Example: xtickformat('eeee, MMMM d, yyyy HH:mm:ss') displaysa date and time such as Saturday, April 19, 2016 21:41:06.
Example: xtickformat('MMMM d, yyyy HH:mm:ss Z') displaysa date and time such as April 19, 2016 21:41:06 -0400.
The display format tables show the letter identifiers that you can use to construct the format. To separate the fields, you can include nonletter characters such as a hyphen, space, colon, or any non-ASCII characters. The identifiers correspond to the Unicode® Locale Data Markup Language (LDML) standard for dates.
Date and Time Formats
Use these identifiers to specify the display formats of thedate and time fields.
| Letter Identifier | Description | Display |
|---|---|---|
G | Era | CE |
y | Year, with no leading zeros. See the Note that follows thistable. | 2014 |
yy | Year, using last two digits. See the Note that follows thistable. | 14 |
yyy, yyyy ... | Year, using at least the number of digits specified by thenumber of instances of 'y' | For the year 2014, 'yyy' displays 2014,while 'yyyyy' displays 02014. |
u, uu, ... | ISO year. A single number designating the year. An ISO yearvalue assigns positive values to CE years and negative values to BCEyears, with 1 BCE being year 0. | 2014 |
Q | Quarter, using one digit | 2 |
QQ | Quarter, using two digits | 02 |
QQQ | Quarter, abbreviated | Q2 |
QQQQ | Quarter, full name | 2nd quarter |
M | Month, numerical using one or two digits | 4 |
MM | Month, numerical using two digits | 04 |
MMM | Month, abbreviated name | Apr |
MMMM | Month, full name | April |
MMMMM | Month, capitalized first letter | A |
W | Week of the month | 1 |
d | Day of the month, using one or two digits | 5 |
dd | Day of the month using two digits | 05 |
D | Day of the year, using one, two or three digits | 95 |
DD | Day of the year using two digits | 95 |
DDD | Day of the year using three digits | 095 |
e | Day of the week, numerical using one or two digits. | 7, where Sunday is the first day of theweek. |
ee | Day of the week, numerical using two digits | 07 |
eee | Day, abbreviated name | Sat |
eeee | Day, full name | Saturday |
eeeee | Day, capitalized first letter | S |
a | Day period (AM or PM) | PM |
h | Hour, 12-hour clock notation using one or two digits | 9 |
hh | Hour, 12-hour clock notation using two digits | 09 |
H | Hour, 24-hour clock notation using one or two digits | 21 |
HH | Hour, 24-hour clock notation using two digits | 21 |
m | Minute, using one or two digits | 41 |
mm | Minute, using two digits | 41 |
s | Second, using one or two digits | 6 |
ss | Second, using two digits | 06 |
S, SS, ..., SSSSSSSSS | Fractional second, using the number of digits specified bythe number of instances of 'S' (up to 9 digits). | 'SSS' truncates 6.12345 seconds to 123. |
Some tips and considerations:
Use one or more
ucharacters insteadofycharacters to represent the year when workingwith year numbers near zero.Datetime values later than 144683 years CE or before140743 BCE display only the year numbers, regardless of the specifiedformat value.
Time Zone Offset Formats
Use these identifiers to specify the display format of the timezone offset. A time zone offset is the amount of time that a specificdate and time is offset from UTC. A time zone offset is differentfrom a time zone in that it comprises rules that determine the offsetsfor specific times of the year. Include a time zone offset identifierwhen you want to ensure that the time components are displayed unambiguously.
| Letter Identifier | Description | Display |
|---|---|---|
z | Abbreviated name of the time zone offset. If this value isnot available, then the time zone offset uses the short UTC format,such as UTC-4. | EDT |
Z | ISO 8601 basic format with hours, minutes, and optional secondsfields. | -0400 |
ZZZZ | Long UTC format. | UTC-04:00 |
ZZZZZ | ISO 8601 extended format with hours, minutes, and optionalseconds fields. A time offset of zero is displayed as the ISO 8601UTC indicator “Z”. | -04:00 |
x or X | ISO 8601 basic format with hours field and optional minutesfield. If you specify X, a time offset of zerois displayed as the ISO 8601 UTC indicator “Z”. | -04 |
xx or XX | ISO 8601 basic format with hours and minutes fields. If youspecify XX, a time offset of zero is displayedas the ISO 8601 UTC indicator “Z”. | -0400 |
xxx or XXX | ISO 8601 extended format with hours and minutes fields. Ifyou specify XXX, a time offset of zero is displayedas the ISO 8601 UTC indicator “Z”. | -04:00 |
xxxx or XXXX | ISO 8601 basic format with hours, minutes, and optional secondsfields. If you specify XXXX, a time offset of zerois displayed as the ISO 8601 UTC indicator “Z”. | -0400 |
xxxxx or XXXXX | ISO 8601 extended format with hours, minutes, and optionalseconds fields. If you specify XXXXX, a time offsetof zero is displayed as the ISO 8601 UTC indicator “Z”. | -04:00 |
durationfmt — Format for duration values
character vector | string scalar
Format for duration values, specified as a character vector or string scalar.
To display a duration as a single number that includes a fractionalpart (for example, 1.234 hours), specify one of the following formats.
| Format | Description |
|---|---|
'y' | Number of exact, fixed-length years. A fixed-length year isequal to 365.2425 days. |
'd' | Number of exact, fixed-length days. A fixed-length day is equalto 24 hours. |
'h' | Number of hours |
'm' | Number of minutes |
's' | Number of seconds |
To display a duration in the form of a digital timer, specifyone of these formats:
'dd:hh:mm:ss''hh:mm:ss''mm:ss''hh:mm'
In addition, you can display up to nine fractionalsecond digits by appending up to nine S characters.For example, 'hh:mm:ss.SSS' displays the millisecondsof a duration value to three digits.
ax — Target axes
Axes object | array of Axes objects
Target axes, specified as an Axes object or an array of Axes objects.
If you do not specify this argument, then xtickformat modifies the current axes.
Algorithms
The xtickformat function sets and queriesthe TickLabelFormat property of the ruler objectassociated with the x-axis.
Version History
Introduced in R2016b
See Also
Functions
- xticks | xticklabels | xlim | xsecondarylabel | xtickangle
Properties
- NumericRuler Properties | DatetimeRuler Properties | DurationRuler Properties
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