10

I am using the polar library with pgfplots to plot a graph like this:

\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{polaraxis}
\addplot[mark = none, domain = 0.4:12, samples = 600, data cs = polarrad]{sin(x)};
\end{polaraxis}
\end{tikzpicture}

As described in the manual, this uses radians for the function, but the axis labels are still plotted in degrees. Instead of having the 0, 30, …, 330 tick labels, I would like 0π, π/6, … 11π/6 labels. I am convinced the solution must be quite simple, but I have not been able to find it yet.

Stefan Pinnow
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Ruud
  • 1,423
  • Would xticklabel={$\pgfmathparse{\tick/180}\pgfmathprintnumber[frac,frac denom=6,frac whole=false]{\pgfmathresult}\pi$} option be sufficient for your needs? – percusse Mar 03 '13 at 13:23
  • @percusse setting xticklabel has no effect when I try it? (redefining \pgfplots@show@ticklabel@@polar has some effect but I guess that isn't the official interface? – David Carlisle Mar 03 '13 at 13:49
  • This is a solution that I could live with, thank you very much! (@DavidCarlisle it works for me.) Of course it would be nicer to have simplified fractions, but if this is the simplest solution, then I guess there is no built-in way to label axes using radians. – Ruud Mar 03 '13 at 13:50
  • @DavidCarlisle You have to include \usepgfplotslibrary{polar}, let me cook up a MWE. – percusse Mar 03 '13 at 13:51
  • @percusse yes I got that far and can run the MWE and get a plot. I guess I should just leave pgf questions to egreg... – David Carlisle Mar 03 '13 at 13:58

2 Answers2

9

I've simplified the fractions a little more

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\pgfplotsset{compat=1.7}
\usepgfplotslibrary{polar}
\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{polaraxis}[
xticklabel={
\pgfmathparse{\tick/180}
\pgfmathifisint{\pgfmathresult}{$\pgfmathprintnumber[int detect]{\pgfmathresult}\pi$}%
{$\pgfmathprintnumber[frac,frac denom=6,frac whole=false]{\pgfmathresult}\pi$}
}
]
\addplot[mark = none, domain = 0.4:12, samples = 600, data cs = polarrad]{sin(x)};
\end{polaraxis}
\end{tikzpicture}


\end{document}

enter image description here

You can introduce yet another \ifnum inside the integer check to remove 1 from 1pi but seems like an overkill to me. It's pretty readable in my humble opinion.

Community
  • 1
percusse
  • 157,807
  • oh flip I nearly answered this an hour ago and could have had lots of lovely tikz points but I added xticklabel to the wrong place (\addplot) +1 to you +0 to me:( – David Carlisle Mar 03 '13 at 14:11
  • @DavidCarlisle Go ahaed and post it please I'm not super happy with the way it is anyways. :) – percusse Mar 03 '13 at 14:12
1

You can also skip the pgf math and simply specify xticklabels (note the plural) yourself:

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\pgfplotsset{compat=1.13}
\usepgfplotslibrary{polar}
\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{polaraxis}[
xticklabels={,0,$\frac\pi6$,$\frac\pi3$,$\frac\pi2$,$\frac{2\pi}3$,$\frac{5\pi}6$,
$\pi$,$\frac{7\pi}6$,$\frac{4\pi}3$,$\frac{3\pi}2$,$\frac{5\pi}3$,$\frac{11\pi}6$}
]
\addplot[mark = none, domain = 0.4:12, samples = 600, data cs = polarrad]{sin(x)};
\end{polaraxis}
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

TeX output

I'm not sure what happens to the first label before 0. (You may also want sin(deg(x)) since the argument is still interpreted as degrees.)

Teepeemm
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