Not write out all dates on an axis, Matplotlib

Question

Take a look at this example:

import datetime as dt
from matplotlib import pyplot as plt 
import matplotlib.dates as mdates
x = []
d = dt.datetime(2013, 7, 4)         


        

Answer 1

You can specify an interval argument to the DateLocator as in the following. With e.g. interval=5 the locator places ticks at every 5th date. Also, place the autofmt_xdate() after the bar method to get the desired output.

import datetime as dt
from matplotlib import pyplot as plt 
import matplotlib.dates as mdates
x = []
d = dt.datetime(2013, 7, 4)
for i in range(30):
        d = d+dt.timedelta(days=1)
        x.append(d)

y = range(len(x))
plt.gca().xaxis.set_major_formatter(mdates.DateFormatter('%d-%m-%Y'))
plt.gca().xaxis.set_major_locator(mdates.DayLocator(interval=5))
plt.bar(x, y, align='center') # center the bars on their x-values
plt.title('DateLocator with interval=5')
plt.gcf().autofmt_xdate()
plt.show()

With interval=3 you will get a tick for every 3rd date: