Remove xticks in a matplotlib plot?

Question

I have a semilogx plot and I would like to remove the xticks. I tried:

plt.gca().set_xticks([])
plt.xticks([])
ax.set_xticks([])

The grid disappears (ok), but small ticks (at the place of the main ticks) remain. How to remove them?

Some of the solutions didn't work for me. But just a little change of the examples here: `ax.set_xticks([], [])` and it's solved ... — TravelTrader, Apr 23 '19 at 07:42

score 648 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 03 '22 at 20:01

648

The plt.tick_params method is very useful for stuff like this. This code turns off major and minor ticks and removes the labels from the x-axis.

Note that there is also ax.tick_params for matplotlib.axes.Axes objects.

from matplotlib import pyplot as plt
plt.plot(range(10))
plt.tick_params(
    axis='x',          # changes apply to the x-axis
    which='both',      # both major and minor ticks are affected
    bottom=False,      # ticks along the bottom edge are off
    top=False,         # ticks along the top edge are off
    labelbottom=False) # labels along the bottom edge are off
plt.show()
plt.savefig('plot')
plt.clf()

enter image description here

edited Apr 03 '22 at 20:01

adamconkey

3,000
4
24
53

answered Oct 21 '12 at 14:05

John Vinyard

12,047
3
27
42

127

I appreciate how this not only answers the question but provides a template for turning several things off/on. This applies the result to both x and y axes: `plt.tick_params(axis='both', which='both', bottom='off', top='off', labelbottom='off', right='off', left='off', labelleft='off')` – Steven C. Howell Jul 11 '15 at 04:32
5

What if it is a 3D plot? – tommy.carstensen Sep 02 '15 at 19:23
57

This is a great answer. For those looking for the oo version, `axes` has the same [`tick_params`](http://matplotlib.org/api/axes_api.html#matplotlib.axes.Axes.tick_params) method. – Mad Physicist Aug 16 '16 at 17:13
45

In newer versions of `matplotlib`, you should replace `'on'` with `True` and `'off'` with `False`. – BallpointBen Mar 22 '18 at 23:22
2

Answer ought be updated for the OOP interface and the newer version syntax. – ifly6 Sep 30 '19 at 19:27
Very helpful answer, but this didn't quite work for me (mpl 3.5.1). But the following worked: plt.tick_params(labelcolor='none'). Also, turning off the bottom ticks bumps the plt.xlabel() text up, causing interference with the subplot labels. – Wesley Kitlasten May 08 '22 at 20:56

score 215 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 24 '14 at 00:38

215

Not exactly what the OP was asking for, but a simple way to disable all axes lines, ticks and labels is to simply call:

plt.axis('off')

answered Jan 24 '14 at 00:38

Martin Spacek

2,531
1
14
9

33

What I needed thanks. The object oriented version would be `ax.axis('off')` on an existing axes instance. – PlasmaBinturong Jun 07 '16 at 10:21
15

how for only xaxis? – qrtLs Mar 19 '19 at 09:26
8

@qrtLs for disabling only x axis labels: `plt.xticks([])` worked for me. – Rishabh Agrahari Dec 18 '20 at 09:53

score 144 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 10 '20 at 19:29

144

Alternatively, you can pass an empty tick position and label as

# for matplotlib.pyplot
# ---------------------
plt.xticks([], [])
# for axis object
# ---------------
# from Anakhand May 5 at 13:08
# for major ticks
ax.set_xticks([])
# for minor ticks
ax.set_xticks([], minor=True)

edited Jun 10 '20 at 19:29

Trevor Boyd Smith

16,711
29
116
163

answered Sep 20 '16 at 15:39

hashmuke

2,715
2
17
29

9

If you have an existing axis instance, say `ax`, then you could use: `ax.set_xticks([], [])` – Guilherme Salomé Mar 19 '19 at 18:56
2

@GuilhermeSalomé this now raises a warning, "Passing the minor parameter of set_xticks() positionally is deprecated since Matplotlib 3.2; the parameter will become keyword-only two minor releases later." What's the correct solution now? – Rylan Schaeffer Apr 23 '20 at 15:01
6

@RylanSchaeffer `ax.set_xticks([])` for major ticks, `ax.set_xticks([], minor=True)` for minor ticks. Equivalents with `pyplot` are `plt.xticks([])` and `plt.xticks([], minor=True)`. – Anakhand May 05 '20 at 13:08

score 88 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 14 '15 at 10:56

88

Here is an alternative solution that I found on the matplotlib mailing list:

import matplotlib.pylab as plt

x = range(1000)
ax = plt.axes()
ax.semilogx(x, x)
ax.xaxis.set_ticks_position('none')

graph

answered Nov 14 '15 at 10:56

Tom Phillips

1,700
15
18

score 50 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 21 '12 at 16:37

50

There is a better, and simpler, solution than the one given by John Vinyard. Use NullLocator:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

plt.plot(range(10))
plt.gca().xaxis.set_major_locator(plt.NullLocator())
plt.show()
plt.savefig('plot')

Hope that helps.

answered Oct 21 '12 at 16:37

dmcdougall

2,356
1
16
15

26

"Better" is debatable, but +1 for the alternative. – mechanical_meat Jan 21 '13 at 18:38
A variant of this solution also worked for me when the goal was to only remove xticks from a "zoomed in" inset, while keeping them in the main plot. Using `axins.xaxis.set_major_locator(plt.NullLocator())`, where `axins` is the object returned by `axins = zoomed_inset_axes()` (function imported from `mpl_toolkits.axes_grid1.inset_locator`). – Dennis Soemers Aug 14 '18 at 13:06

score 32 · Answer 6 · edited Mar 20 '14 at 15:16

32

Try this to remove the labels (but not the ticks):

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

plt.setp( ax.get_xticklabels(), visible=False)

example

edited Mar 20 '14 at 15:16

Chris Seymour

79,902
29
153
193

answered Nov 11 '13 at 21:09

auraham

1,637
2
20
27

3

`setp` is in pylab mode, cannot be used against individual axes – dashesy Sep 02 '14 at 23:21
2

How about the object oriented interface? – ifly6 Sep 30 '19 at 17:57
This was the only answer that also worked for 3D plots for me. Thanks for this! – Brent Feb 03 '20 at 22:06

Amitrajit Bose · Answer 7 · 2018-06-12T16:35:29.190

21

This snippet might help in removing the xticks only.

from matplotlib import pyplot as plt    
plt.xticks([])

This snippet might help in removing the xticks and yticks both.

from matplotlib import pyplot as plt    
plt.xticks([]),plt.yticks([])

edited Jun 12 '18 at 16:35

answered Jun 11 '18 at 15:12

Amitrajit Bose

528
4
13

hahnec · Answer 8 · 2020-06-27T12:03:21.383

Those of you looking for a short command to switch off all ticks and labels should be fine with

plt.tick_params(top=False, bottom=False, left=False, right=False,
                labelleft=False, labelbottom=False)

which allows type bool for respective parameters since version matplotlib>=2.1.1

For custom tick settings, the docs are helpful:

https://matplotlib.org/api/_as_gen/matplotlib.axes.Axes.tick_params.html

score 4 · Answer 9 · edited Apr 20 '19 at 07:22

4

# remove all the ticks (both axes), and tick labels on the Y axis
plt.tick_params(top='off', bottom='off', left='off', right='off', labelleft='off', labelbottom='on')

edited Apr 20 '19 at 07:22

Marcelo Villa-Piñeros

1,025
2
11
23

answered Apr 18 '19 at 06:53

Nishant Wattamwar

99
1
3

3

The object oriented version of this is `ax.tick_params()` – Marcelo Villa-Piñeros Apr 20 '19 at 04:45
2

Also, using `off` and `on` is deprecated. `MatplotlibDeprecationWarning: Passing one of 'on', 'true', 'off', 'false' as a boolean is deprecated; use an actual boolean (True/False) instead.` – Marcelo Villa-Piñeros Apr 20 '19 at 04:58

score 2 · Answer 10 · answered Sep 30 '20 at 12:14

Modify the following rc parameters by adding the commands to the script:

plt.rcParams['xtick.bottom'] = False
plt.rcParams['xtick.labelbottom'] = False

A sample matplotlibrc file is depicted in this section of the matplotlib documentation, which lists many other parameters like changing figure size, color of figure, animation settings, etc.

Remove xticks in a matplotlib plot?

10 Answers10

Linked

Related