Problems with xaxis ticks and labels

Hello.

I am having some problems with my x axis.

Y=NaN(12,nyr);
%
for i=1:nyr
%
  Y(:,i)=mnCML((i-1)*12+1:i*12);
%
end
%
figure('NumberTitle','off','Name','boxes')
%
boxplot(Y), hold on
%
plot([0 35],mean(mnCML)*[1 1],'r--')
%
xtics=[0:5:35];
xticlab={'1980' '1985' '1990' '1995' '2000' '2005' '2010' '2015'};
set(gca,'XTick',xtics,'XTickLabel',xticlab)

I have 34 years of data (1981 - 2014). I am displaying yearly box plots. I want the axis to start at 1980 and end at 2015. I have attached the current graph, which starts at 1985 and ends at 2010. I essentially want to have labels at the borders of the chart before and after the data years. Any advice? Thanks!

Answer 1

[Tommy]

The x axis limits are from 1 to 34, based on your box plot. When you call hold on and then plot a line from 0 to 35, the limits don't update. One option is to update the limits after everything is plotted by adding axis tight at the end:

Y=NaN(12,nyr);
%
for i=1:nyr
%
  Y(:,i)=mnCML((i-1)*12+1:i*12);
%
end
%
figure('NumberTitle','off','Name','boxes')
%
boxplot(Y), hold on
%
plot([0 35],mean(mnCML)*[1 1],'r--')
%
xtics=[0:5:35];
xticlab={'1980' '1985' '1990' '1995' '2000' '2005' '2010' '2015'};
set(gca,'XTick',xtics,'XTickLabel',xticlab)
axis tight

[Katharine S]

That does work for the x axis, thank you. But how do I preserve the y axis? It also tightens the y axis to where the whiskers at the bottom are now hard to see.

[Tommy]

Good point. One way is to store the y limits before calling axis tight and then reset the y limits afterwards:

limy = ylim;
axis tight
ylim(limy)

Or, better to work with graphics object handles rather than gca and gcf:

f = figure('NumberTitle','off','Name','boxes');
%
ax = axes(f);
boxplot(ax, Y), hold(ax, 'on')
%
plot(ax,[0 35],mean(mnCML)*[1 1],'r--')
%
xtics=[0:5:35];
xticlab={'1980' '1985' '1990' '1995' '2000' '2005' '2010' '2015'};
set(ax,'XTick',xtics,'XTickLabel',xticlab)
limy = ylim(ax);
axis(ax, 'tight')
ylim(ax, limy)

[Katharine S]

Thank you! I also found that adding in xlim([0 35]) works too after you mentioned the limits.

[Tommy]

Happy to help!