time on x axis

I have the following code

fid = fopen('file.txt','rt');
X = textscan(fid,'%s%s%f%s%s%s%f%f%f%f%s%s%s%s',...
    'HeaderLines',7);
fclose(fid);
time= X{1}; ydata=X{10};
start=time(1,1); done=time(end);%retrieve start and end time

startDate = datenum(start); 
endDate = datenum(done);
xData = linspace(startDate,endDate,...
    length(time));%./(length(time)./15)));

plot(xData,ydata)
set(gca,'XTick',xData)
datetick('x','HH:MM:SS','keepticks')
grid on

This plots some data against time data that I take from a huge data file. The problem is that there are so many plot points that the date data on the x axis is all jumbled together. How do I add something to the code to make only like every 10 minutes of time data be displayed instead of displaying every second and having it all jumbled together?

Answer 1

[Fangjun Jiang]

can you try to skip the "set(gca,'XTick',xData)" line and use the default xtick set by plot()?

Answer 2

[Alex]

shorter_data = resample(xData, down_size_factor)

down_size_factor should be a whole number. Using 2 will skip every other data point and leave you with half the original data points.