.. _pylab_examples-date_demo1: pylab_examples example code: date_demo1.py ========================================== .. plot:: /home/mdboom/Work/builds/matplotlib/doc/mpl_examples/pylab_examples/date_demo1.py :: #!/usr/bin/env python """ Show how to make date plots in matplotlib using date tick locators and formatters. See major_minor_demo1.py for more information on controlling major and minor ticks All matplotlib date plotting is done by converting date instances into days since the 0001-01-01 UTC. The conversion, tick locating and formatting is done behind the scenes so this is most transparent to you. The dates module provides several converter functions date2num and num2date This example requires an active internet connection since it uses yahoo finance to get the data for plotting """ from pylab import figure, show from matplotlib.finance import quotes_historical_yahoo from matplotlib.dates import YearLocator, MonthLocator, DateFormatter import datetime date1 = datetime.date( 1995, 1, 1 ) date2 = datetime.date( 2004, 4, 12 ) years = YearLocator() # every year months = MonthLocator() # every month yearsFmt = DateFormatter('%Y') quotes = quotes_historical_yahoo( 'INTC', date1, date2) if len(quotes) == 0: raise SystemExit dates = [q[0] for q in quotes] opens = [q[1] for q in quotes] fig = figure() ax = fig.add_subplot(111) ax.plot_date(dates, opens, '-') # format the ticks ax.xaxis.set_major_locator(years) ax.xaxis.set_major_formatter(yearsFmt) ax.xaxis.set_minor_locator(months) ax.autoscale_view() # format the coords message box def price(x): return '$%1.2f'%x ax.fmt_xdata = DateFormatter('%Y-%m-%d') ax.fmt_ydata = price ax.grid(True) fig.autofmt_xdate() show() Keywords: python, matplotlib, pylab, example, codex (see :ref:`how-to-search-examples`)