How to specify the actual x axis values to plot as x axis ticks in R

Question

I am creating a plot in R and I dont like the x axis values being plotted by R.

For example:

x <- seq(10,200,10)
y <- runif(x)

plot(x,y)


        

Answer 1

You'll find the answer to your question in the help page for ?axis.

Here is one of the help page examples, modified with your data:

Option 1: use xaxp to define the axis labels

plot(x,y, xaxt="n")
axis(1, xaxp=c(10, 200, 19), las=2)

Option 2: Use at and seq() to define the labels:

plot(x,y, xaxt="n")
axis(1, at = seq(10, 200, by = 10), las=2)

Both these options yield the same graphic:

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PS. Since you have a large number of labels, you'll have to use additional arguments to get the text to fit in the plot. I use las to rotate the labels.

Answer 2

Hope this coding will helps you :)

plot(x,y,xaxt = 'n')

axis(side=1,at=c(1,20,30,50),labels=c("1975","1980","1985","1990"))

Answer 3

In case of plotting time series, the command ts.plot requires a different argument than xaxt="n"

require(graphics)
ts.plot(ldeaths, mdeaths, xlab="year", ylab="deaths", lty=c(1:2), gpars=list(xaxt="n"))
axis(1, at = seq(1974, 1980, by = 2))

Answer 4

Take a closer look at the ?axis documentation. If you look at the description of the labels argument, you'll see that it is:

"a logical value specifying whether (numerical) annotations are 
to be made at the tickmarks,"

So, just change it to true, and you'll get your tick labels.

x <- seq(10,200,10)
y <- runif(x)
plot(x,y,xaxt='n')
axis(side = 1, at = x,labels = T)
# Since TRUE is the default for labels, you can just use axis(side=1,at=x)

Be careful that if you don't stretch your window width, then R might not be able to write all your labels in. Play with the window width and you'll see what I mean.

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It's too bad that you had such trouble finding documentation! What were your search terms? Try typing r axis into Google, and the first link you will get is that Quick R page that I mentioned earlier. Scroll down to "Axes", and you'll get a very nice little guide on how to do it. You should probably check there first for any plotting questions, it will be faster than waiting for a SO reply.