.. only:: html

    .. note::
        :class: sphx-glr-download-link-note

        Click :ref:`here <sphx_glr_download_gallery_ticks_and_spines_tick_labels_from_values.py>`     to download the full example code
    .. rst-class:: sphx-glr-example-title

    .. _sphx_glr_gallery_ticks_and_spines_tick_labels_from_values.py:


=========================================
Setting tick labels from a list of values
=========================================

Using `.Axes.set_xticks` causes the tick labels to be set on the currently
chosen ticks. However, you may want to allow matplotlib to dynamically
choose the number of ticks and their spacing.

In this case it may be better to determine the tick label from the
value at the tick. The following example shows how to do this.

NB: The `.ticker.MaxNLocator` is used here to ensure that the tick values
take integer values.


.. code-block:: default


    import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
    from matplotlib.ticker import MaxNLocator


    fig, ax = plt.subplots()
    xs = range(26)
    ys = range(26)
    labels = list('abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz')


    def format_fn(tick_val, tick_pos):
        if int(tick_val) in xs:
            return labels[int(tick_val)]
        else:
            return ''


    # A FuncFormatter is created automatically.
    ax.xaxis.set_major_formatter(format_fn)
    ax.xaxis.set_major_locator(MaxNLocator(integer=True))
    ax.plot(xs, ys)
    plt.show()





.. image:: /gallery/ticks_and_spines/images/sphx_glr_tick_labels_from_values_001.png
    :alt: tick labels from values
    :class: sphx-glr-single-img





------------

References
""""""""""

The use of the following functions, methods, classes and modules is shown
in this example:


.. code-block:: default


    import matplotlib
    matplotlib.pyplot.subplots
    matplotlib.axis.Axis.set_major_formatter
    matplotlib.axis.Axis.set_major_locator
    matplotlib.ticker.FuncFormatter
    matplotlib.ticker.MaxNLocator








.. _sphx_glr_download_gallery_ticks_and_spines_tick_labels_from_values.py:


.. only :: html

 .. container:: sphx-glr-footer
    :class: sphx-glr-footer-example



  .. container:: sphx-glr-download sphx-glr-download-python

     :download:`Download Python source code: tick_labels_from_values.py <tick_labels_from_values.py>`



  .. container:: sphx-glr-download sphx-glr-download-jupyter

     :download:`Download Jupyter notebook: tick_labels_from_values.ipynb <tick_labels_from_values.ipynb>`


.. only:: html

 .. rst-class:: sphx-glr-signature

    Keywords: matplotlib code example, codex, python plot, pyplot
    `Gallery generated by Sphinx-Gallery
    <https://sphinx-gallery.readthedocs.io>`_
