matplotlib barplot, generic way of setting the xticklabels in the middle of the bar

Question

Following code generates a barplot with the xticklabels centered for each bar. However, scaling the x-axis, changing the number of bars or changing the bar width does alter

Answer 1

So the problem is that you only call ax.set_xticklabels. This fixes the labels, but the tick positions are still handled by the AutoLocator, which will add/remove ticks upon changing the axis limits.

So you also need to fix the tick positions:

ax.set_xticks(x)
ax.set_xticklabels(xl)

By calling set_xticks the AutoLocator is replaced under the hood with a FixedLocator.

And then you can center the bars to make it look nicer (optional):

ax.bar(x, y, 0.5, align='center')