Date Formatting and Locators

Matplotlib provides powerful tools for formatting dates on axes. Proper date formatting makes time series more readable and professional.

Date Formatters

Date Locators

Major and Minor Ticks

Auto Date Locator

Custom Tick Positions

Practice: Financial Chart with Dates

Key Takeaways

• Use mdates.DateFormatter() with format strings for custom date display
• Locators control where ticks appear: MonthLocator, YearLocator, WeekdayLocator
• Combine major and minor ticks for detailed time scales
• AutoDateLocator and ConciseDateFormatter handle varying time ranges
• Custom tick positions work well for irregular intervals like quarters
• Always rotate date labels with rotation=45 for readability

In the next lesson, we'll explore visualizing trends and seasonality.