Re: [Matplotlib-users] ticklabels

[John H. <jdh...@ac...>]

>>>>> "Charles" == Charles  <ct...@cs...> writes:

    Charles> Hi John, I added one line that shows the problem. If you
    Charles> do a set_xticks() first, then the usual ([]) doesn't
    Charles> blank them. Here's code that should suppress the xticks
    Charles> for all but the bottom-most graphs in each column. It
    Charles> works if you comment out the set_xticks line (HERE HERE
    Charles> HERE).

Hi Charles,

As an aside, you'll be interested in these super secret undocumented
methods of the Subplot class, which I implemented so I wouldn't have
to do the if i % COLS == 1 tricks that I came to know and love in
matlab.  I too find myself making lots-o-subplots and blanking out the
labels

Subplot methods:

    def is_first_col(self):
    def is_first_row(self):
    def is_last_row(self):
    def is_last_col(self):

which enables you to write your loop

for i in range(1,NUMPLOTS+1):
    ax = subplot (ROWS, COLS, i)
    ax.set_xticks((0,1,2))     
    title('Simple ' + str(i))
    
    if ax.is_first_col(): ax.set_ylabel('voltage (mV)')
    else: ax.set_yticklabels ([])

    if ax.is_last_row():  ax.set_xlabel('time (s)')
    else: ax.set_xticklabels ([])

Now onto your problem.  Thanks for the example script.  I am not sure
which version of matplotlib you are working with, but it appears there
is a clear bug in Axis.set_ticklabels in the part which reads

        for s, label in zip(self._ticklabelStrings, self._ticklabels):
            label.set_text(s)
            label.update_properties(override)

when len(self._ticklabelStrings) is less than len(self._ticklabels),
the label text doesn't get updated.  Duh!

Something like this should work better.  At least with
matplotlib-0.32a it handles your example

    def set_ticklabels(self, ticklabels, *args, **kwargs):
        """
        Set the text values of the tick labels.  ticklabels is a
        sequence of strings.  Return a list of AxisText instances
        """
        ticklabels = ['%s'%l for l in ticklabels]
        
        self._ticklabelStrings = ticklabels
        override = {}
        override = backends._process_text_args(override, *args, **kwargs)

        Nnew = len(self._ticklabelStrings)
        existingLabels = self.get_ticklabels()
        for i, label in enumerate(existingLabels):
            if i<Nnew: label.set_text(self._ticklabelStrings[i])
            else: label.set_text('')
            label.update_properties(override)
        return existingLabels

    Charles> Is this comment better for -users or -devel?  Or bug
    Charles> tracking?

I think users, since my answer includes a *possible* fix which others
may find useful.  Let me know how this works for you; I'll take a
closer look on Thurs when I have some breathing room again.

JDH