r"""
=====================
Major and minor ticks
=====================

Demonstrate how to use major and minor tickers.

The two relevant classes are `.Locator`\s and `.Formatter`\s.  Locators
determine where the ticks are, and formatters control the formatting of tick
labels.

Minor ticks are off by default (using `.NullLocator` and `.NullFormatter`).
Minor ticks can be turned on without labels by setting the minor locator.
Minor tick labels can be turned on by setting the minor formatter.

`.MultipleLocator` places ticks on multiples of some base.
`.StrMethodFormatter` uses a format string (e.g., ``'{x:d}'`` or ``'{x:1.2f}'``
or ``'{x:1.1f} cm'``) to format the tick labels (the variable in the format
string must be ``'x'``).  For a `.StrMethodFormatter`, the string can be passed
directly to `.Axis.set_major_formatter` or
`.Axis.set_minor_formatter`.  An appropriate `.StrMethodFormatter` will
be created and used automatically.

`.pyplot.grid` changes the grid settings of the major ticks of the y and y axis
together.  If you want to control the grid of the minor ticks for a given axis,
use for example ::

  ax.xaxis.grid(True, which='minor')

Note that a given locator or formatter instance can only be used on a single
axis (because the locator stores references to the axis data and view limits).
"""

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
from matplotlib.ticker import (MultipleLocator, AutoMinorLocator)


t = np.arange(0.0, 100.0, 0.1)
s = np.sin(0.1 * np.pi * t) * np.exp(-t * 0.01)

fig, ax = plt.subplots()
ax.plot(t, s)

# Make a plot with major ticks that are multiples of 20 and minor ticks that
# are multiples of 5.  Label major ticks with '.0f' formatting but don't label
# minor ticks.  The string is used directly, the `StrMethodFormatter` is
# created automatically.
ax.xaxis.set_major_locator(MultipleLocator(20))
ax.xaxis.set_major_formatter('{x:.0f}')

# For the minor ticks, use no labels; default NullFormatter.
ax.xaxis.set_minor_locator(MultipleLocator(5))

plt.show()

###############################################################################
# Automatic tick selection for major and minor ticks.
#
# Use interactive pan and zoom to see how the tick intervals change. There will
# be either 4 or 5 minor tick intervals per major interval, depending on the
# major interval.
#
# One can supply an argument to `.AutoMinorLocator` to specify a fixed number
# of minor intervals per major interval, e.g. ``AutoMinorLocator(2)`` would
# lead to a single minor tick between major ticks.

t = np.arange(0.0, 100.0, 0.01)
s = np.sin(2 * np.pi * t) * np.exp(-t * 0.01)

fig, ax = plt.subplots()
ax.plot(t, s)

ax.xaxis.set_minor_locator(AutoMinorLocator())

ax.tick_params(which='both', width=2)
ax.tick_params(which='major', length=7)
ax.tick_params(which='minor', length=4, color='r')

plt.show()


#############################################################################
#
# ------------
#
# References
# """"""""""
#
# The use of the following functions, methods, classes and modules is shown
# in this example:

import matplotlib
matplotlib.pyplot.subplots
matplotlib.axis.Axis.set_major_formatter
matplotlib.axis.Axis.set_major_locator
matplotlib.axis.Axis.set_minor_locator
matplotlib.ticker.AutoMinorLocator
matplotlib.ticker.MultipleLocator
matplotlib.ticker.StrMethodFormatter