matplotlib-users Mailing List for matplotlib

Hi:

Below is a little part of my post from a while ago regarding x-axis 
scaling on plot_date plots.

>
> 2) The auto-scaling in plot_date() does not scale properly in some 
> special cases. Consider this:
>
> -----------------
> from matplotlib.matlab import *
>
> time2= [
> 1087321489.89, 1087321500.0,
> 1087321789.89, 1087321800.0, 1087322089.89, 1087322100.0, 
> 1087322389.89, 1087322700.0, 1087322989.89,
> 1087323000.0, 1087323289.89, 1087323300.0, 1087323589.89, 
> 1087323600.0, 1087323889.89, 1087323900.0,
> 1087324189.89, 1087324200.0, 1087324489.89, 1087324500.0, ]
> data2=[ 3.02,
> 3.02,
> 3.14,
> 3.14,
> 3.21,
> 3.21,
> 3.26,
> 3.26,
> 3.39,
> 3.39,
> 3.51,
> 3.51,
> 3.58,
> 3.58,
> 3.75,
> 3.75,
> 4.0,
> 4.0,
> 4.22,
> 4.22,]
>
> plot_date(time2, data2, None, '-', color='b')
> xlabel('time')
> grid(True)
>
> show()
> ---------------
>
> The same thing happens over differnt ranges when the amount of ticks 
> is large. Perhaps you may use something similar to the code below
> (from axes.py) to deal with these things. Note the ceilings get rid of 
> the AssertErrors in ticks.Base when int() gives zero. Also, to 
> finalize this,
> one would have to write a DayMultiLocator type class for the Weeks, 
> otherwise when the number of weeks is close, but less then the number
> of weeks in numticks*months it will get crowded. This will probably be 
> a little more involved than dealing with days, but perhaps one could use
> your existent WeekdayLocator class to simplify the problem.


I added a quick and dirty version of this WeekMultiLocator that handles 
cases when the time range is many weeks but less than 5 months (say 17 
weeks) and the ticks get over-crowded. Ideally one could have the weeks 
always start on some particular day - say Monday, but for me it doesnt 
really matter, and with the simple code below, thing seem to come out 
quite nice.


In axes.py need:

Line ~19:

from ticker import YearLocator, MonthLocator, WeekdayLocator, \
     DayLocator, HourLocator, MinuteLocator, DateFormatter, 
DayMultiLocator, WeekMultiLocator


Line ~1475:

    def plot_date(self, d, y, converter, fmt='bo', **kwargs):
        """
        plot_date(d, y, converter, fmt='bo', **kwargs)

        d is a sequence of dates; converter is a dates.DateConverter
        instance that converts your dates to seconds since the epoch for
        plotting.  y are the y values at those dates.  fmt is a plot
        format string.  kwargs are passed on to plot.  See plot for more
        information.

        pass converter = None if your dates are already in epoch format
        """

        if not self._hold: self.cla()

        if converter is not None:
            e = array([converter.epoch(thisd) for thisd in d])
        else:
            e = d
           
        assert(len(e))
        ret = self.plot(e, y, fmt, **kwargs)

        span  = self.dataLim.intervalx().span()
        if span==0: span = SEC_PER_HOUR
        minutes = span/SEC_PER_MIN
        hours  = span/SEC_PER_HOUR
        days   = span/SEC_PER_DAY
        weeks  = span/SEC_PER_WEEK
        months = span/(SEC_PER_DAY*31)  # approx       
        years  = span/(SEC_PER_WEEK*52)   # approx

        numticks = 5
        if years>numticks:
            locator = YearLocator(math.ceil(years/numticks)) 
            fmt = '%Y'
        elif months>numticks:
            locator = MonthLocator(math.ceil(months/numticks)) 
            fmt = '%b %Y'
        elif weeks>numticks:
            locator = WeekMultiLocator(math.ceil(weeks/numticks))
            fmt = '%a, %b %d'
        elif days>numticks:
            locator = DayMultiLocator(math.ceil(days/numticks))
            fmt = '%b %d'
        elif hours>numticks:
            locator = HourLocator(math.ceil(hours/numticks))
            fmt = '%H:%M\n%b %d'
        elif minutes>numticks:
            locator = MinuteLocator(math.ceil(minutes/numticks))
            fmt = '%H:%M:%S'
        else:
            locator = MinuteLocator(1)
            fmt = '%H:%M:%S'

        formatter = DateFormatter(fmt)
        self.xaxis.set_major_locator(locator)
        self.xaxis.set_major_formatter(formatter)
        self.autoscale_view()
        return ret

In ticks.py:

Need to add:

class WeekMultiLocator(MultipleLocator):
    """
    Make ticks on day which are multiples of base
    """
    def __init__(self, base):
        MultipleLocator.__init__(self, base*SEC_PER_WEEK)



-- 
Peter Groszkowski         Gemini Observatory
Tel: +1 808 974-2509      670 N. A'ohoku Place
Fax: +1 808 935-9235      Hilo, Hawai'i 96720, USA