Rotate axis text in python matplotlib

Question

I can\'t figure out how to rotate the text on the X Axis. Its a time stamp, so as the number of samples increase, they get closer and closer until they overlap. I\'d like

Answer 1

Easy way

As described here, there is an existing method in the matplotlib.pyplot figure class that automatically rotates dates appropriately for you figure.

You can call it after you plot your data (i.e.ax.plot(dates,ydata) :

fig.autofmt_xdate()

If you need to format the labels further, checkout the above link.

Non-datetime objects

As per languitar's comment, the method I suggested for non-datetime xticks would not update correctly when zooming, etc. If it's not a datetime object used as your x-axis data, you should follow Tommy's answer:

for tick in ax.get_xticklabels():
    tick.set_rotation(45)