MATLAB: Is plotyy producing jitter in the x-axis, or is it the code

2nd axis autoscalingMATLABplotyyx-axis jitter

I've got a strange problem when I use the plotyy function in the following code;
% Plot Altitude and Versions with Time
figure('Name','Altitude and Versions','numbertitle','off');
[AX,H1,H2] = plotyy(State_Time, Alt, State_Time, Version, 'semilogy', 'plot');
% Add the title, legend, X-axis and Y-axes labels
title(Event_Title,'FontSize', 20);
legend(Source,'Location','NortheastOutside');
axes(AX(1));
ylabel('Altitude (m)','Fontsize', 20,'fontweight','b');
set(gca, 'XTickLabel',num2str(get(gca,'XTick')','%d'));
xlabel('UTC (Sec)','Fontsize', 20,'fontweight','b');
axes(AX(2));
ylabel('SV ID','Fontsize', 20,'fontweight','b');
% Set the markers, markersizes, and linestyles
set(H1,'Marker','o','MarkerSize',15);
set(H2,'Marker','+','MarkerSize',15);
set(H2,'LineStyle','none');
When the figure appears, it is as I would expect – with the exception of 2 items;
1. The x-axis UTC times have jitter in them. Think of the following line of text;
58570 58572 58574 58576 58578 58580
being overwritten with the following line of text;
5.8570 5.8572 5.8574 5.8576 5.8578 5.8580 x 10^4
The decimal notation is preferred. This is the first time I've used plotyy and I'm not sure if I'm violating some rule pertaining to the function itself.
2. I can seem to control the values of the 2nd y-axis (Version). I want only whole numbers to populate this axis. Currently, it is being autoscaled by MATLAB and I'm not sure how to get around it.
Any ideas?

Best Answer

It's your code... :)
[AX,H1,H2] = plotyy(State_Time, Alt, State_Time, SV_ID, 'semilogy', 'plot');
axes(AX(1));
set(gca, 'XTickLabel',num2str(get(gca,'XTick')','%d'));
The above writes the tick labels on the LH x-axis but there's no similar statement for the RH axes object. plotyy is two completely independent axes that just are overlaid on top of each other.
There has been much discussion before on why TMW doesn't automagically hide the RH axis x-ticks so there aren't two competing sets visible but there are some disadvantages to that by itself, too.
To solve your problem either
a) set both the same way
set(AX, 'XTickLabel',num2str(get(gca,'XTick')','%d'));
or b) hide the RH ticks entirely...
set(AX(2),'xtick',[])
in which case your previous code will have the desired appearances. All in all, the best solution is probably to use the a) form almost exclusively as it will keep the two in synch. This is particularly important if you decide to do something like zoom in on an axis; then the two won't coincide at all. The alternative way to do the latter is linkaxes but it only handles the range limits, not all the rest of the properties.
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