Matplotlib – Setting Ticks and Tick Labels

In this article, we are going to discuss how set Ticks and Tick labels in a graph.

Ticks are the markers denoting data points on the axes and tick labels are the name given to ticks. By default matplotlib itself marks the data points on the axes but it has also provided us with setting their own axes having ticks and tick labels of their choice.

Methods used:

• plt.axes(*args, emit=True, **kwargs): For setting the axes for our plot with parameter rect as [left,bottom,width,height] for  setting axes position.
• plt.axes().set_xticks() and plt.axes().set_yticks() : For setting ticks on x-axis and y-axis respectively. having data in form of a list set as parameter.
• plt.axes().set_xlabels() and plt.axes().set_ylabels() : To set labels of our ticks with parameters in form of list.

Below are some examples which depict how to add ticks and ticklabels in a plot:

Example 1: 

Python3

# import required module
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

# assign coordinates
x = y = [i for i in range(0, 10)]
ax = plt.axes()

# depict illustration
plt.plot(x, y, color="lime")

# setting ticks for x-axis
ax.set_xticks([2, 4, 6, 8, 10])

# setting ticks for y-axis
ax.set_yticks([1, 3, 5, 7, 9])

plt.show()

Output:

Example 2:

Python3

# import required module
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

# assign coordinates
x = y = [i for i in range(0, 10)]
ax = plt.axes()

# depict illustration
plt.plot(x, y, color="lime")

# setting ticks for x-axis
ax.set_xticks([2, 4, 6, 8, 10])

# setting label for x tick
ax.set_xticklabels(['Geeks', 'for', 'geeks', '!'])

# setting ticks for y-axis
ax.set_yticks([1, 3, 5, 7, 9])

# setting label for y tick
ax.set_yticklabels(['A', 'B', 'C', 'D'])

plt.show()

Output:

Example 3:

Python3

# import required modules
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
import math

# assign coordinates
x = np.arange(0, math.pi*2, 0.05)
y = np.sin(x)
ax = plt.axes()

# depict illustration
plt.plot(x, y, color="lime")

# setting ticks for x-axis
ax.set_xticks([0, 2, 4, 6])

# setting ticks for y-axis
ax.set_yticks([-1, 0, 1])

plt.show()

Output:

Example 4:

Python3

# import required modules
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
import math

# assign coordinates
x = np.arange(0, math.pi*2, 0.05)
y = np.sin(x)
ax = plt.axes()
plt.xlabel("x-axis")
plt.ylabel("y-axis")

# depict illustration
plt.plot(x, y, color="lime")

# setting ticks for x-axis
ax.set_xticks([0, 2, 4, 6])

# setting ticks for y-axis
ax.set_yticks([-1, 0, 1])

# setting label for y tick
ax.set_yticklabels(["sin(-90deg)", "sin(0deg)", "sin(90deg)"])

plt.show()

Output: