MATLAB: How to rotate the X-axis tick labels and place an X-label on the plot after R2016b

MATLAB

I want to replace the X-tick labels (XTickLabel) with strings and rotate them so that they are at an angle of 45 degrees to the axes. I would like to do this and still be able to place a X-label (xlabel) on my plot.

Best Answer

You can label the x-axis using the "xlabel" function. For example:

plot(1:10)
xlabel('My x-Axis Label Text')

For more information about "xlabel", see:

http://www.mathworks.com/help/releases/R2016b/matlab/ref/xlabel.html

You can rotate the x-axis tick labels using the "xtickangle" function. For example:

xtickangle(45)

The "xtickangle" function was introduced in R2016b. If you are using R2014b through R2016a, you can rotate the labels by setting the XTickLabelRotation property of the Axes object. For example:

ax = gca;
ax.XTickLabelRotation = 45;

For more information about "xtickangle", see:

http://www.mathworks.com/help/releases/R2016b/matlab/ref/xtickangle.html

Related Solutions

MATLAB: How to rotate the axis tick labels in 2-D and 3-D

For MATLAB releases before R2014b, below is an example that demonstrates how to rotate the X-tick labels in MATLAB :

% Create some data: 
X = 1:12; 
Y = rand(1,12); 
% Generate a plot 
bar(X,Y); 
% Set the tick locations and remove the labels 
set(gca,'XTick',1:12,'XTickLabel','') 
% Define the labels 
lab = [{'January'};{'February'};{'March'};{'April'};{'May'};{'June'};...
         {'July'};{'August'};{'September'};{'October'};...
         {'November'};{'December'}];
% Estimate the location of the labels based on the position 
% of the xlabel 
hx = get(gca,'XLabel');  % Handle to xlabel 
set(hx,'Units','data'); 
pos = get(hx,'Position'); 
y = pos(2); 
% Place the new labels 
for i = 1:size(lab,1) 
  t(i) = text(X(i),y,lab(i,:)); 
end 
set(t,'Rotation',90,'HorizontalAlignment','right')

Following is a simple example of how to rotate an x-label in 3-D:

view(3) 
xlabel('Hello'); 
h = get(gca,'xlabel'); 
set(h,'Rotation',20)

Alternatively, you can use this user created File Exchange submission that can perform the same task:

http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/27812-rotate-x-axis-tick-labels

Please note that the above File Exchange file was not authored by MathWorks. Any questions regarding this file should be directed to the contributing author of that file.

NOTE: If you are working under the MS Windows version of MATLAB, you will need to make sure that you are using a Truetype font in your text objects. Truetype are the only fonts which can be rotated correctly on the screen and on printouts.

MATLAB: Do I receive a “Value must be a handle” error when I modify the “XLabel”, “YLabel”, “ZLabel”, or “Title” property of an axes within MATLAB

Each of the "XLabel", "YLabel", "ZLabel", and "Title" properties of the axes is actually a handle to a text object.

It is recommended to use the XLABEL, YLABEL, ZLABEL, and TITLE functions directly. For example

xlabel('This is my label')

However, if you are required to use the SET function, you can use the following command:

set(get(gca,'XLabel'),'String','This is my label')

For more information about these properties of axes objects, see the following link:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/matlab.graphics.axis.axes-properties.html

Best Answer

Related Solutions

MATLAB: How to rotate the axis tick labels in 2-D and 3-D

MATLAB: Do I receive a “Value must be a handle” error when I modify the “XLabel”, “YLabel”, “ZLabel”, or “Title” property of an axes within MATLAB

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