Pandas plot major ticks. Bonus One-Liner Method 5: Quick Plot with pandas.

Pandas plot major ticks Jul 23, 2025 · Output Basic line plot Explanation: This code initializes x and y data points, creates a figure and axis, plots the data with markers and a line and then displays the plot. Matplotlib's default ticks are generally sufficient in common situations but are in no way optimal for every plot. Uses the backend specified by the option plotting. Remove Xticks in Matplotlib turn off all axis plt. subplots(figsize=(8, 5)) palet Nov 27, 2021 · I have a plot with a left and right y-axis created with pandas. These change the formatting of the axis labels for dates and times. import matplotlib. pyplot module as plt, matplotlib. I am trying to plot counts in gridded plots, but I haven't been able to figure out how to go about it. and an optional parameter. May 24, 2017 · I tried to make the code work with the pandas plot () function but I couldn’t find a solution. line(df_temp, x=df_temp. It feels like there should be a better aproach (I don't have Furthermore, you can identify the default tick locators and formatters used by the plotting functions with ax. plot_date() convenience function wraps around the plot_date() functionality May 31, 2016 · In Pandas, I have a DataFrame of observations (baby bottle feeding volumes) that are indexed by a datetime and grouped by date: bottles = bottles. plot () function which streamlines the process. So after spending some time looking around, I decided to give up and started to use the matplotlib bar () function Multilevel (nested) ticks # Sometimes we want another level of tick labels on an axis, perhaps to indicate a grouping of the ticks. From '2020-01-01' to '2021-01-01'. Jul 11, 2025 · Whenever we plot a graph, the axes adjust and take the default ticks. This heavily slowed down the plotting process. One aspect of enhancing the visual appeal of a plot is to properly align and rotate the x-axis tick labels. Date tick labels # Matplotlib date plotting is done by converting date instances into days since an epoch (by default 1970-01-01T00:00:00). Manual location and formats # The simplest method to customize the tick locations and formats Mar 22, 2018 · What I get is The major grid lines are displayed but the minor ones are not. To make potentially heterogeneous tabular data, use Pandas dataframe. ylabel, position or list of label, positions, default Axis ticks # The x and y Axis on each Axes have default tick "locators" and "formatters" that depend on the scale being used (see Axis scales). We'll look into several examples covering multiple aspects of tick frequency and datetime labels in Matplotlib. Plot the dataframe using plot () method. These examples use Axes. plot # DataFrame. plot() pd. I could use this code (see below) to set it to 30th day of each month/quarter, but I cannot figure out how to set it to the last day of each month/quarter, since the quarter ending june ends on 30th while the quarter ending in march ends on 31st. plot() s2. get_xaxis(). MultipleLocator (space)) in which we pass space which is sets as 80 hence tick I'm trying to set the ticks (time-steps) of the x-axis on my matplotlib graph of a Pandas DataFrame. Matplotlib provides with a number of functions to help overcome this. index, y=df_temp. For adjusting x-ticks specifically, the plt. Jul 16, 2025 · Learn how to use Matplotlib's set_xticks method to customize x-axis ticks in Python plots with practical examples tailored for data visualization in the USA. This is where customizing the datetime tick label frequency comes into play. Techniques for setting ticks and labels include using set_xticklabels (), set_yticklabels (), or the functions xticks () and yticks (). plot () function can be tailored to display monthly x-ticks. plot() and call set_major_formatter() after that! I came across this different behaviour in the third example plot below. ,By using the 'xticks' parameter I can pass the major ticks to pandas. DataFrame(random_value, columns=['Value']) I am trying to set the format to two decimal numbers in a matplotlib subplot environment. Therefore, you can't just set the text of a given tick label. Pandas, a powerful Python library for data manipulation, paired with Matplotlib (for plotting), simplifies this process. minorbool If True, set minor ticks instead of major ticks. I want to increase the font sizes of the y-axis tick params, but it seems that only the left side y-axis font size is increasing. These can be used on either the major or the minor ticks. The tick format is configured via the function set_major_formatter or set_minor_formatter. 00 maps to 100%. Parameters: labelssequence of str or of Texts Texts for labeling each tick location in the sequence set by Axes. plot) Nov 13, 2025 · Visualizing such data with time on the x-axis helps uncover trends, seasonality, and anomalies. Feb 12, 2020 · I want the major tick locator to be at end of quarter. Syntax: matplotlib. subplots() df. dates as shown in this example the date format can be applied to the axis label and ticks for plot. Set X-axis major locator, i. Jun 11, 2024 · I have a plot with both Major and Minor Ticks. I was hoping to get the minor ticks grid lines to be a every 10th location on the X axis that is 460 470 etc and every location on the Y (actual scale of Y is a bit smaller) I am plotting two pandas series. MaxNLocator(10)) However, it doesn't achieve my goals, as it now incorrectly labels bars and removes ticks (which I understand since using these functions change the xticks object): An ugly solution is to loop within the xticks object: Sep 2, 2024 · Answer by Westin Ponce The ticks and labels of pandas time series plots are currently formatted like this by default:,As described in the documentation, pandas uses matplotlib to create plots with its own custom tick formatters for time series:, Stack Overflow for Teams Where developers & technologists share private knowledge with coworkers ,I had a hard time trying to get @Serenity answer to Sep 22, 2025 · When working with time series data in pandas, the . datetime64 objects to and from Matplotlib's internal representation. Sep 11, 2023 · pandas provides custom formatters for timeseries plots. I have tried using matplotlib but it doesn't seem to work. plot = myData. xticks () function is utilized. Manual location and formats # The simplest method to customize the tick locations and formats is to use set_xticks and set_yticks. In Pandas, you can customize the major and minor ticks, as well as their labels, on the x-axis of a time series plot using the matplotlib library, which is integrated with Pandas for plotting. plot() interprets the dates and assigns them to axis values as such: I would like to modify the major t Apr 1, 2025 · FAQs What do pandas xticks do? Pandas xticks help manage the labels on the x-axis of your plots, making your data visualization easier to understand. It is a grouped bar chart and I don't want the legend describing each category, but want each category shown in the minor ticks. Jul 23, 2025 · Matplotlib has the ability to customize ticks and tick labels on axes, which enhances the readability and interpretability of graphs. It is a bit strange to me, as specifying text labels for ticks seems a very common need. In case you want to use matplotlib. The plt. plot, and then set the major tick labels. (I can set the labels on the default minor ticks set by pandas. Example 1: Adjust Number X - Ticks using set_xticks () In this example, we are setting a number of xticks to the length of data present in dataframe. Jun 13, 2020 · Adding minor ticks to pandas plot Asked 4 years, 11 months ago Modified 4 years, 11 months ago Viewed 2k times Jul 4, 2024 · Major ticks are typically larger and have labels, while minor ticks are smaller and often do not have labels. ,If I use them without converting the pandas times, the x-axis ticks and labels end up wrong. grid() Customize the grid fig I have a problem with this plot: The y-axis is in unit but I need them to be in millions as such: Do you know a method to achieve this? Thanks in advance. set_xticks ( [], minor=True) might be important to make sure they are no ticks at odd positions (or also move minor ticks). I can’t work out how to do the minor ticks using this approach. This example illustrates the usage and effect of the most common formatters. Learn how to customize the date format in a Python matplotlib plot. plot_date() The pandas. If an empty list is Adjust tick frequency of plot in Matplotlib and seaborn - Install Matplotlib, seaborn, pandas, & NumPy - Change plot’s axis ticks frequency Jan 3, 2023 · Yes I'm using pandas but you I think you should be able to change the major tick in matplotlit. It provides In Pandas, you can customize the major and minor ticks, as well as their labels, on the x-axis of a time series plot using the matplotlib library, which is integrated with Pandas for plotting. Here's how you can do this: Jul 11, 2015 · I have an existing plot that was created with pandas like this: df['myvar']. If you want to control the size of both x and y axis, use axis='both'. set_major_locator(plt. My goal is to use the first column of the DataFrame to use as the ticks, but I haven't been successful so far. This function takes two arguments: the first argument specifies the locations of the ticks, and the second argument specifies the labels for the ticks. I looked into the pandas documentation but just see the grid option. Using MaxBLocator MaxNLocator from matplotlib. set_major_locator (ticker. plot(*args, **kwargs) [source] # Make plots of Series or DataFrame. plot () or Series. (Note: If you're using a pandas plot method, it returns an axes object, so you'll need to use ax. On to solving your problem. I am looking for a way to just show nth xlabel while keep all my current data what i have tried: I have read through axes documentation and found some useful function. As I had a lot of datapoints to plot, pyplot was printing a lot (>500) ticks per axis. set(style="darkgrid") fig, ax = plt. axis('off') remove with tick_params plt. tick_params(\ axis='x', # changes apply to the x-axis which='both', # both major and minor ticks are affected bottom='off', # ticks along the bottom edge are off top='off', # ticks along the top edge are off labelbottom='off From the package matplotlib. This post is based on our previous work on Matplotlib custom SI-prefix unit tick formatter: Note that for pandas, you need to first call df. This can make the chart easier to read and interpret, especially when dealing with dense or sparse data. A common issue users encounter is failing to display xtick labels in their pandas DataFrames. xticks () function is useful for both retrieving and setting x-axis tick locations and labels, allowing for greater control over the visual output. Jun 13, 2020 · You can use the tick_params function on the ax instance to control the size of the tick-labels on the x-axis. plot (or ax. Draw samples from a log-normal distribution. The labels are used as is, via a FixedFormatter (without further formatting). The index is DateTime stamps YYYY-MM-DD, and the colum Jan 30, 2022 · When plotting our time series example dataset, this is the resulting plot This post shows how to easily plot this dataset with an y axis formatted as percent. First let's import Matplotlib and create a simple function to plot some lines: Detailed examples of Formatting Ticks including changing color, size, log axes, and more in Python. Minor ticks, though, have their labels formatted by a NullFormatter: this says that no labels will be shown. We will assume that 1. Various operations can create, delete and modify the Tick instances. Oct 19, 2023 · To remove Xticks from a plot in Pandas or Matplotlib we have multiple options. Oct 18, 2012 · If I use them without converting the pandas times, the x-axis ticks and labels end up wrong. To get what you want, just replace the last three lines of your code (after plotting) by: Jul 25, 2025 · Explore multiple methods to control the spacing and frequency of ticks on Matplotlib axes. When the data is large to plot, the ticks squishes themselves to fit the figure. Why am I able to correctly edit the x-axis' ticks with pandas line() and area() plots, but not with bar()? What's the best wa Learn how to use major and minor ticks in Matplotlib plots to mark the position of data points on the axis. secondary_xaxis, which is one approach. , n=2 will place a single minor tick midway between major ticks. May 9, 2015 · Nevertheless, combining mdates functionalities with a pandas stacked bar plot can come in handy if you prefer using tick locators/formatters or if you want to have dynamic ticks when using the interactive interface of matplotlib (to pan/zoom in and out). It accepts: a format string, which implicitly creates a StrMethodFormatter. labelslist of str, optional We see that both major and minor tick labels have their locations specified by a LogLocator (which makes sense for a logarithmic plot). , setting limits with xlim or adjusting ticks with xticks) often becomes a hurdle. xaxis. Unfortunately, I do not have any idea how to solve this task. I realize both the technical and even visual Sep 26, 2012 · 88votes 3answers 135kviews Pandas timeseries plot setting x-axis major and minor ticks and labels I want to be able to set the major and minor xticks and their labels for a time series graph plotted from a Pandas time series object. autofmt_xdate() that will (among other things) rotate the tick labels to make them a bit more readable. Below I have given an example for labeling axis ticks for multiplots Tick formatters # Tick formatters define how the numeric value associated with a tick on an axis is formatted as a string. The two relevant classes are Locator s and Formatter s. In this guide, we’ll walk through **exactly how to plot time as the x-axis in Pandas** using CSV data. Some tick formatters will not label arbitrary tick positions; e. The index is a date (1-1 to 12-31) s1. Minor tick labels can be Jul 12, 2025 · The annotate () function in pyplot module of matplotlib library is used to get and set the current tick locations and labels of the y-axis. Here's how you can do this: which{'major', 'minor', 'both'}, default: 'major' The group of ticks to which the parameters are applied. plot () function for values of the x-axis we used the values of list x and for the y-axis, we used the values of list y and set the tick frequency by using xaxis. ticker as ticker import seaborn as sns import pandas as pd sns. xticks () function is used to get or set the x-axis ticks in a plot. ) Nov 6, 2024 · Solution 1: Custom Gridlines with Individual Styling The most direct approach is to manually create the gridlines by plotting each axis individually for both major and minor ticks. . plot) function will automatically set default x and y limits. update_layout(xaxis_rangeslider_visible=True) fig. g. Method 1: Using matplotlib One way to set x-axis intervals (ticks) is to use the xticks() function from the matplotlib library. pyplot. The assumption is that you'll want to interact with the plot, and so the bounds of the plot, ticks, ticklabels, etc will be dynamically changing. "you can python Dec 31, 2021 · In this quick tutorial, we’ll discuss how to change the tick frequency datetime labels for Matplotlib plots. Steps Construct a new Generator with the default BitGenerator (PCG64). fontdictdict, optional Jan 9, 2022 · To regain control over tick location and tick label formatting, when using the pandas plot wrapper, one needs to set x_compat=True. You can additionally specify which='major' or which='minor' or which='both' depending on if you want to change major, minor or both tick labels. Ensuring that the Pass an empty list (set_xticks([])) to remove all ticks. widthfloat Nov 27, 2020 · I have a pandas data frame that I have graphed in a plot but for some reason I can't get my plot to have xtick labels. It has the advantage that we can use Matplotlib Locators and Formatters Plotly is fantastic, and maybe the only thing that bothers me is the autoselection of ticks / gridlines and the labels chosen for the x-axis like in this plot: Plot 1: I think the natural thing to display here is the first of each month (depending ong the period of course). Using Pandas, get a fixed frequency DatetimeIndex. Method 1: Using Axes from Pandas Plot When you use pandas for plotting, it conveniently returns the axes object for you to manipulate. columns[2:5]) # Show plot fig. We'll now show a few examples of setting these locators and formatters for various plots. By iterating through the tick locations for both axes, you can control the appearance of each gridline precisely. It seems that the preferred method of setting ticklabels is automatic. This is because the pandas wrapper does a lot of work in the background with locator s and formatter s. It is possible to customize the ticks and tick labels with either high-level methods like set_xticks or set the locators and formatters directly on the axis. If n is 'auto', it will be set to 4 or 5: if the distance between the major ticks equals 1, 2. There is an imminent risk that these settings can get lost if you work on the figure further (including also Jan 2, 2023 · In this post we will see how to use mataplotlib xticks locators and formatters to place the ticks every hour or every 15/30 minutes on a plot. Other Parameters: direction{'in', 'out', 'inout'} Puts ticks inside the Axes, outside the Axes, or both. By default, matplotlib is used. As soon as dates are involved, pandas uses a totally different numerical representation of dates and hence also uses its own locators for the ticks. By using the 'xticks' parameter, I can pass the major ticks to pandas' . Ticks are not guaranteed to be persistent. Learn how to customize the date format on time series plots created using matplotlib. Minor ticks are off by default (using NullLocator and NullFormatter). plot(kind='bar') The y axis is format as float and I want to change the y axis to percentages. 5, 5 or 10 it can be perfectly divided in 5 equidistant sub-intervals with a length multiple of 0. get_major_locator() or ax. set_major_formatter or provide formatted labels yourself. dates formatters or locators on plots created with pandas you may use the x Sep 20, 2023 · In this tutorial, we'll go over how to change the tick frequency in Matplotlib, both for the entire figure as well as axis-level tick frequency customization with examples. When plotting data in a graph, the labels of the x and y axes may sometimes overlap. minor: This parameter is used whether set major ticks or to set minor ticks Return value: This method does not returns any value. tick_params(axis='x Dec 24, 2023 · When visualizing data using Pandas, it is important to ensure that the plot is not only informative but also visually appealing. resetbool, default: False Whether to reset the ticks to defaults before updating them. 05; otherwise, it is Dec 11, 2022 · We can use Matplotlib Dates API together with major and minor tick formatter. Apr 17, 2024 · 2 How can I add minor ticks to a plot that is done using numpy? I have a file with two columns A and B, I need to multiply each by a different factor using numpy, and I want to plot them (there are several files and I want to plot all of them in subplots) with minor ticks, but numpy has no attribute for minor ticks. Learn how to set custom intervals, format tick labels, and manage dense tick displays in Python plots. To prevent using scientific notation on the Aug 13, 2021 · Major and minor ticks ¶ Demonstrate how to use major and minor tickers. By default, the custom formatters are applied only to plots created by pandas with DataFrame. This code snippet demonstrates the flexibility offered by DayLocator, setting up the x-axis to only show a tick every two days, combined with a custom DateFormatter. rand(365, 1) df = pd. , ticks. Here’s a practical example: Jul 23, 2025 · ticks: This parameter is the list of x-axis/y-axis tick locations. Parameters: dataSeries or DataFrame The object for which the method is called. Set X-axis major formatter, i. By default, Matplotlib uses major ticks, but minor ticks can be added for more detailed information. Or maybe even just an abreviateed month name like 'Jan' on each tick. By using the ‘xticks’ parameter I can pass the major ticks to pandas. You can increase or decrease the number of ticks depending on the level of detail you want to show. set_xticks; the number of labels must match the number of locations. By reducing the number of thicks with set_major_locator(5) the plotting process is much faster. The problem seems to be that the implicit coupling of data vs index, used when automatically setting the tick labels, gets mixed up with a different number of tick labels to be set. ticker In Pandas, you can customize the major and minor ticks, as well as their labels, on the x-axis of a time series plot using the matplotlib library, which is integrated with Pandas for plotting. yticks (ticks=None, labels=None, **kwargs) Parameters: This method accept the following parameters that are described below: ticks: This parameter is the list of xtick locations. log formatters only label decade ticks by default. Nov 13, 2025 · Pandas, paired with Matplotlib, simplifies plotting this data, but customizing the x-axis (e. pyplot. Jul 10, 2023 · This will create a simple line plot of the “sales” column against the “year” column. groupby( Jul 29, 2024 · However, in many cases, the default frequency may not be suitable for the specific needs of the plot. Sep 11, 2020 · When you plot time series data using the matplotlib package in Python, you often want to customize the date format that is presented on the plot. May 16, 2015 · It seems Pandas still not offer to relabel ticks, and your solution accessing matplotlib Axes is still valid in 2021. Matplotlib does not provide an automated way to do this, but it is relatively straightforward to annotate below the main axis. In this article, we Jan 12, 2021 · I have tried removing every set_xticks, or grids options and just plotting the data frame and I cannot get the X-axis to stop skipping years. Mar 7, 2024 · The output is a plot with date ticks specifically spaced out at two-day intervals. Feb 18, 2023 · In this article, we will explore how to prevent overlapping x-axis tick labels. Can I rotate my x-ticks? Absolutely! When you change major ticks position with ax. By rotating the tick labels, we can prevent overcrowding and overlapping of labels, making it easier for viewers to interpret the plot. show() You have a slider to zoom in and zoom out by dates like that: For instance, here I zoomed in to see how temperature behaves during this interval: Sep 24, 2020 · When you plot time series data in matplotlib, you often want to customize the date format that is presented on the plot. e. We'll use Pandas to generate a date range and some random data points. , tick Jan 1, 2017 · The problem is that while pandas in general directly wraps the matplotlib plotting methods, this is not the case for plots with dates. In such a case you can set a formatter explicitly on the axis using Axis. random. ticker module as ticker and then plotted a bar graph by using plt. bar () to plot a Series of data. Aug 28, 2023 · How can I turn the minor ticks only on y axis on a linear vs linear plot? When I use the function minor_ticks_on to turn minor ticks on, they appear on both x and y axis. I want: to have dotted grids at an interval of 5; to have major tick labels only every 20; Jul 23, 2025 · Changing the number of ticks in Matplotlib improves the clarity of a plot by controlling how many tick marks appear along the axes. get_xlim() to discover what limits Matplotlib has already set. plot and specifying secondary_y=True. Warning This only sets the properties of the current ticks, which is only sufficient if you either pass ticks, resulting in a fixed list of ticks, or if the plot is static. xlabel or position, default None Only used if data is a DataFrame. You can easily access the Y-ticks and convert them to a percentage format. If you wish to keep those limits, and just change the stepsize of the tick marks, then you could use ax. gca(). datetime and numpy. Here are the steps that we are following in this post: Create a dataframe with Jul 23, 2025 · We imported the matplotlib. Some of the easiest of them are May 12, 2019 · I am trying to use DataFrame. Major and Minor Ticks: Major ticks are the primary markers on the axes, usually accompanied by labels. dates module provides the converter functions date2num and num2date that convert datetime. get_major_formatter() (you can do the same for the y-axis, and for minor ticks) to get an idea of what is happening under the hood. In this post, we'll walk through a few simple ways to show the grid in your plots, on both the major and minor ticks. This article will explore setting ticks and tick labels, providing a clear example to illustrate the core concepts. There are many ways to change the interval of ticks of axes of a plot of Matplotlib. plot (). Feb 25, 2022 · import plotly. pyplot as plt import matplotlib. This function allows you to modify the labels and positions of the ticks along the x-axis, providing greater flexibility and control over your plots. Now, let's explore different methods to remove ticks from a plot. Oct 18, 2012 · If I use them without converting the pandas times, the x-axis ticks and labels end up wrong. bar() However, there are a lot of data so the Xaxis are overlapping each other. Pyplot is a module within the Matplotlib library which is a shell-like interface to Matplotlib module. Minor ticks can be turned on without labels by setting the minor locator. Improve your data visualization skills with this comprehensive tutorial. Because dates most commonly have this problem, there's a figure method fig. get_xticks() for tick in ticks: if Jun 12, 2018 · plt. lengthfloat Tick length in points. figure. Mar 16, 2021 · Using Pandas, we can create a dataframe with time and speed, and thereafter, we can use the data frame to get the desired plot. The number of subdivisions of the interval between major ticks; e. Basic Plotting with Datetime Data Let's start by creating a basic plot with datetime data. Aug 13, 2016 · From a bit of looking around it seems that pandas doesn't play well with locators. pandas. My attempt: ticks = plot. Bonus One-Liner Method 5: Quick Plot with pandas. Major and minor ticks # Demonstrate how to use major and minor tickers. There is an imminent risk that these settings can get lost if you work on the figure further (including also By default, at least as of this writing, Matplotlib hides the underlying Axes grid. Date tick locators and formatters # This example illustrates the usage and effect of the various date locators and formatters. The matplotlib. The ticks and labels of pandas time series plots are currently formatted like this by default: Dec 5, 2024 · Here are the Top 9 Methods to elegantly handle this requirement. Setting Ticks and tick labels - using set_xticks () and set_yticks () In Matplotlib, ticks are markers on the axes of a plot that denote specific Sep 23, 2025 · It is possible to manually set ticks via Matplotlib or directly through the Pandas . for ax in (ax1, ax2): # Rest of the code ax. DataFrame. All of the solutions I f Sep 11, 2022 · I want to be able to set the major and minor xticks and their labels for a time series graph plotted from a Pandas time series object. express as px import pandas as pd import numpy as np # data where the index is the date fig = px. Aug 24, 2018 · Since you have only 5 major ticks in your first plot, you only create 5 labels as 0, 1, 10, 100, 1000 as per your definition. we will use the two relevant matplotlib classes locators and formatters. Locators determine where the ticks are, and formatters control the formatting of tick labels. set_xticks (major_ticks), a call to ax. set_index('datetime') bottles = bottles. How can I change the format of the numbers in the x-axis to be like 10,000 instead of 10000? Ideally, I would just like to do something like this: Therefore, it's best to rotate long tick labels. a function, implicitly Jul 12, 2025 · matplotlib. Preparing data import pandas as pd import numpy as np import seaborn as sns random_value = np. plot. Which in most cases works but it does not look good visually. Render the grid fig, ax = plt. Dates are notoriously tricky: non-standard formats, time zones, and conversion errors can leave your plot with unreadable ticks, misaligned limits, or even broken axes. autofmt_xdate(). Here's how you can do this: To change the datetime tick label frequency for Matplotlib plots, we can create a dataframe and plot them in some date range Steps Set the figure size and adjust the padding between and around the subplots. plot(kind='scatter', x='GDP_per_capita', y='life_expectancy', ax=ax) # Turn on the grid ax. ylabel, position or list of label, positions, default Matplotlib deliberately avoids doing "static" positioning of ticks, etc, unless it's explicitly told to. backend. Jul 23, 2025 · Matplotlib is a plotting library in Python to visualize data, inspired by MATLAB, meaning that the terms used (Axis, Figure, Plots) will be similar to those used in MATLAB. yhfqjm pufru xcec bgen fvrkv nmmp xjotdc ftblt hfsobfw sshr bfvlwyu kdkpns zmydw jdtn goqcx