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Better date axes #68

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eb30045
Change gridlines to dashed
phil-brad Jul 15, 2025
9396ab2
Concise date time axes
phil-brad May 11, 2026
b025d30
Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/master' into feature/grid-lines
phil-brad May 11, 2026
0f1665a
Also format y ticks
phil-brad May 11, 2026
498b2ae
revert gridlines commit to keep it separate
phil-brad May 22, 2026
083a6cb
Apply suggestions from code review
phil-brad May 26, 2026
77a7c47
Fix inverted y axis
phil-brad May 26, 2026
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83 changes: 70 additions & 13 deletions pyqttoolkit/views/plot/matplotlib/base.py
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
# along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
# Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
from io import BytesIO
import math
import numpy as np
from datetime import datetime

Expand All @@ -23,6 +24,7 @@
from PyQt5.QtGui import QKeySequence, QImage

import matplotlib
import matplotlib.dates as mdates
from matplotlib.legend import DraggableLegend
from matplotlib.backends.backend_qt5agg import FigureCanvasQTAgg as FigureCanvas
from matplotlib.figure import Figure
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -202,6 +204,7 @@ def __init__(self,
self._setting_axis_limits = False

self.hasHiddenSeries = False
self._axes.grid(False)

enabledToolsChanged = pyqtSignal()
spanChanged = pyqtSignal(SpanModel)
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -868,23 +871,31 @@ def _update_ticks(self):
if not self.data:
return
if hasattr(self.data, 'x_labels'):
step = self.data.x_tick_interval if hasattr(self.data, 'x_tick_interval') else None
x_ticks, x_labels, x_ticks_rotation = self._get_labels(self.data.x_labels, step, horizontal=True)
self._axes.set_xticks(x_ticks)
if len(self.data.x_labels) > 0 and all(isinstance(x, (np.datetime64, pd.Timestamp)) for x in self.data.x_labels):
x_labels = self.data.x_labels
self._update_date_xticks(x_labels)
x_ticks_rotation = 0.0
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else:
step = self.data.x_tick_interval if hasattr(self.data, 'x_tick_interval') else None
x_ticks, x_labels, x_ticks_rotation = self._get_labels(self.data.x_labels, step, horizontal=True)
self._axes.set_xticks(x_ticks, x_labels)
if hasattr(self.data, 'x_ticks_rotation'):
rotation = x_ticks_rotation if np.isnan(self.data.x_ticks_rotation) else self.data.x_ticks_rotation
self._axes.set_xticklabels(
x_labels, rotation=rotation, ha='right' if rotation else 'center')
self._adjust_to_xticklabels_height(x_labels, rotation)
else:
self._axes.set_xticklabels(x_labels)
self._axes.xaxis.set_tick_params(labelrotation=rotation)
matplotlib.artist.setp(self._axes.get_xticklabels(),
horizontalalignment='right' if rotation else 'center')
self._adjust_to_xticklabels_height(self._axes.get_xticklabels(), rotation)

if hasattr(self.data, 'y_labels'):
step = self.data.y_tick_interval if hasattr(self.data, 'y_tick_interval') else None
y_ticks, y_labels, _ = self._get_labels(self.data.y_labels, step, horizontal=False)
self._axes.set_yticks(y_ticks)
self._axes.set_yticklabels(y_labels)
self._adjust_to_yticklabels_width(y_labels)
if len(self.data.y_labels) > 0 and all(isinstance(y, (np.datetime64, pd.Timestamp)) for y in self.data.y_labels):
y_labels = self.data.y_labels
self._update_date_yticks(y_labels)
else:
step = self.data.y_tick_interval if hasattr(self.data, 'y_tick_interval') else None
y_ticks, y_labels, _ = self._get_labels(self.data.y_labels, step, horizontal=False)
self._axes.set_yticks(y_ticks)
self._axes.set_yticklabels(y_labels)
self._adjust_to_yticklabels_width(y_labels)

def _adjust_to_yticklabels_width(self, labels):
sizes = self._divider.get_horizontal()
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -919,6 +930,52 @@ def _adjust_to_xticklabels_height(self, labels, rotation=None):
sizes[0] = Size.Fixed(height / self._figure.dpi)
self._divider.set_vertical(sizes)

def _update_date_yticks(self, y_labels):
x_extent, y_extent = self._get_xy_extents()
ipositions, tick_formats, axis_label = self._determine_date_ticks(y_labels, self.axes.yaxis, self.data.yAxisTitle, y_extent)
self._axes.set_yticks(ipositions, tick_formats)
self._axes.set_ylabel(axis_label)
self._adjust_to_yticklabels_width(tick_formats)

def _update_date_xticks(self, x_labels):
x_extent, y_extent = self._get_xy_extents()
ipositions, tick_formats, axis_label = self._determine_date_ticks(x_labels, self.axes.xaxis, self.data.xAxisTitle, x_extent)
self._axes.set_xticks(ipositions, tick_formats)
self._axes.set_xlabel(axis_label)

def _determine_date_ticks(self, labels, axis_obj, axis_title, extent):
e0, e1 = extent
imin, imax = max(0, math.floor(e0)), min(math.ceil(e1), len(labels) - 1)
# Convert all labels to date numbers for robust min/max handling
label_dates = [mdates.date2num(lbl) for lbl in labels]
date_num_min = min(label_dates)
date_num_max = max(label_dates)

locator = mdates.AutoDateLocator(maxticks=max(1, min(imax - imin, 25)))
offset_formats = ['', '%Y', '%Y-%b', '%Y-%b', '%Y-%m-%d', '%Y-%m-%d']
formatter = mdates.ConciseDateFormatter(locator,
offset_formats=offset_formats)

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if date_num_max == date_num_min:
tick_vals = np.array([date_num_min])
ipositions = np.array([(imin + imax) / 2.0])
tick_formats = formatter.format_ticks(tick_vals)
axis_label = f'{axis_title} ({formatter.get_offset()})' if formatter.get_offset() else axis_title
return ipositions, tick_formats, axis_label

# Ensure correct order for tick_values
if label_dates[imin] <= label_dates[imax]:
tick_vals = locator.tick_values(labels[imin], labels[imax])
ipositions = (len(labels) - 1) * (tick_vals - date_num_min) / (date_num_max - date_num_min) - 0.5
else:
tick_vals = locator.tick_values(labels[imax], labels[imin])
ipositions = (len(labels) - 1) * (tick_vals[::-1] - date_num_min) / (date_num_max - date_num_min) - 0.5

tick_formats = formatter.format_ticks(tick_vals)
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@NoePonceH NoePonceH May 26, 2026

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if ipositions is calculated in L972, it uses tick_vals in reversed order but here formatted ticks are always created from tick_vals in the original order. is it the expected behaviour?

axis_label = f'{axis_title} ({formatter.get_offset()})' if formatter.get_offset() else axis_title
return ipositions, tick_formats, axis_label


def _get_labels(self, labels, step, horizontal=True):
(x0, x1), (y0, y1) = self._get_xy_extents()
start, end = (int(x0), int(x1)) if horizontal else (int(y0), int(y1))
Expand Down