MATLAB: Cut out section of x axis

Question

I am plotting two experiments on the same x axis. I want to keep the xaxis from 7/11 to 7/14 and 7/18 to 7/20, but I want to cut out the space inbetween (7/14 to 7/18). Is this possible.

This is my figure code now:

f1 = figure(1)
subplot(2,1,1)
hold on 
plot(time_hr,ph_hr(1,:),'o','color','r','markersize',3);
plot(time_hr,ph_hr(2,:),'o','color',[1.0 .6 0.0],'markersize',3);
plot(time_hr,ph_hr(3,:),'o','color',[0 .4 .2],'markersize',3); 
plot(time_hr,ph_hr(4,:),'o','color',[0 .6 1],'markersize',3);   
plot(time_hr,ph_hr(5,:),'o','color',[.2 0 .6],'markersize',3);
% plot(MX,PK.PH(2,:),'color',[0 .4 .2])
% plot(MX,PK.PH(8,:),'color',[.2 0 .6])
set(gca,'fontsize', 16)
ylabel('pH')
 
title('HR2 and HR3')
x = datenum('July-11-2018'):1:datenum('July-20-2018');
xx = datenum('July-11-2018'):.25:datenum('July-20-2018'); 
set(gca,'XTick', x);
ax=gca;
ax.XAxis.MinorTick = 'on'
ax.XAxis.MinorTickValues = xx
datetick('x','mm/dd','keepticks')
xlim([datenum('July-11-2018 00:00') datenum('July-20-2018 00:00')]); 
 
 
subplot(2,1,2)
hold on 
plot(time_hr,temp_hr(1,:),'o','color','r','markersize',3);
plot(time_hr,temp_hr(2,:),'o','color',[1.0 .6 0.0],'markersize',3);
plot(time_hr,temp_hr(3,:),'o','color',[0 .4 .2],'markersize',3); 
plot(time_hr,temp_hr(4,:),'o','color',[0 .6 1],'markersize',3);   
plot(time_hr,temp_hr(5,:),'o','color',[.2 0 .6],'markersize',3);
% plot(MX,PK.TEMP(2,:),'color',[0 .4 .2])
% plot(MX,PK.TEMP(8,:),'color',[.2 0 .6])
set(gca,'fontsize', 16)
ylabel('Temperature \circC')
 
x = datenum('July-11-2018'):1:datenum('July-20-2018');
xx = datenum('July-11-2018'):.25:datenum('July-20-2018'); 
set(gca,'XTick', x);
ax=gca;
ax.XAxis.MinorTick = 'on'
ax.XAxis.MinorTickValues = xx
datetick('x','mm/dd','keepticks')
xlim([datenum('July-11-2018 00:00') datenum('July-20-2018 00:00')]); 

Answer 1

This solution identifies all data with dates past 7/18 and shifts them down by 5 days. Then it overrides the x ticks with custom xticklabels.

load('data.mat')
% define gap boundaries 
bounds = datenum({'07/14/2018','07/18/2018'}); %[start,stop] of gap
% shift data that are beyond bound to the start of the bound
shift = range(bounds); 
time_hr_altered = time_hr - (time_hr >= bounds(2))*shift; 
f1 = figure(1)
subplot(2,1,1)
hold on
plot(time_hr_altered,ph_hr(1,:),'o','color','r','markersize',3);
plot(time_hr_altered,ph_hr(2,:),'o','color',[1.0 .6 0.0],'markersize',3);
plot(time_hr_altered,ph_hr(3,:),'o','color',[0 .4 .2],'markersize',3);
plot(time_hr_altered,ph_hr(4,:),'o','color',[0 .6 1],'markersize',3);
plot(time_hr_altered,ph_hr(5,:),'o','color',[.2 0 .6],'markersize',3);
% Set up daily ticks
xtic = floor(min(time_hr_altered)) : ceil(max(time_hr_altered));
xtic_altered = xtic + (xtic >= bounds(1))*shift;
xticLabels = datestr(xtic_altered, 'mm/dd'); 
set(gca,'XTick', xtic, 'XTickLabel', xticLabels);
% Draw vertical reference line where the dates are discontinuous
plot(bounds([1,1]), [min(ylim),max(ylim)], 'k--');  %use xline() if r2018b or later