matplotlib log axis: display powers of 10 only

Question

I have a log-log plot with range of x-axis from 10^9 to 10^12. (This is my first time posting so I am unable to post an image of my plot)

I would like to change the x an

Answer 1

LogFormatterExponent(base=10.0, labelOnlyBase=True) works as expected.

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.ticker

x = 10**np.linspace(8.5,12.6)
y = np.sin(x)

fig,ax = plt.subplots()
ax.scatter(x,y)
ax.set_xscale('log')
ax.set_xlabel("Quantity [$10^{x}]$")

logfmt = matplotlib.ticker.LogFormatterExponent(base=10.0, labelOnlyBase=True)
ax.xaxis.set_major_formatter(logfmt)

plt.show()

Answer 2

Would it be so easy as to plot the X data in linear scale on a semilog plot?

plt.semilogy(np.log10(x), y)

Then you'll have the X scale as powers of ten.

For example:

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

# create some data
x = 10**np.linspace(0,9,100)
y = np.sqrt(100 + x)

# plot the figure
fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(111)
ax.semilogy(np.log10(x), y)

ax.set_xlabel("$10^x$")
ax.set_ylabel("$\sqrt{100 + x}$")

This gives: