datetick (MATLAB Function Reference)

Label tick lines using dates

datetick(tickaxis)
datetick(tickaxis,dateform)

Description

datetick(tickaxis)

labels the tick lines of an axis using dates, replacing the default numeric labels. tickaxis is the string 'x', 'y', or 'z'. The default is 'x'. datetick selects a label format based on the minimum and maximum limits of the specified axis.

datetick(tickaxis,dateform)

formats the labels according to the integer dateform (see table). To produce correct results, the data for the specified axis must be serial date numbers (as produced by datenum).


Dateform	Format	Example
0	day-month-year hour:minute	01-Mar-1995 03:45
1	day-month-year	01-Mar-1995
2	month/day/year	03/01/95
3	month, three letters	Mar
4	month, single letter	M
5	month, numeral	3
6	month/day	03/01
7	day of month	1
8	day of week, three letters	Wed
9	day of week, single letter	W
10	year, four digit	1995
11	year, two digit	95
12	month year	Mar95
13	hour:minute:second	15:45:17
14	hour:minute:second AM or PM	03:45:17
15	hour:minute	15:45
16	hour:minute AM or PM	03:45 PM

Remarks

datetick calls datestr to convert date numbers to date strings.

To change the tick spacing and locations, set the appropriate Axes property (i.e., XTick, YTick, or ZTick) before calling datetick.

Example

Consider graphing population data based on the 1990 U.S. census:

t = (1900:10:1990)';     % Time interval
p = [75.995 91.972 105.711 123.203 131.669 ...
    150.697 179.323 203.212 226.505 249.633]';  % Population
plot(datenum(t,1,1),p)   % Convert years to date numbers and plot
grid on
datetick('x',11)     % Replace x-axis ticks with 2-digit year labels