Can my x-axis have varying scales for certain ranges of values?

Is it possible to scale my x-axis so the intervals are spread further apart from each other for more time-sensitive data and closer together for the data that spans across a larger time period?

For example, I would like the distance between the x-ticks to be relatively small from 60- to 180-seconds. Conversely, I would like the gaps to be significantly wider from 180-seconds to 200-seconds so the plot is less crowded.

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

Is it possible to scale my x-axis so the intervals are spread further apart from each other for more time-sensitive data and closer together for the data that spans across a larger time period?

No, it is not.

• you could create several piecewise linear (or log) axes beside each other, and split the drawing up between them.
• you could transform your original x data in a non-linear way, and tell xticklabels to lie about what values are there, and ignore the problems you are creating for zoom or data cursors
• you could transform your original x data in a non-linear way, and tell xticklabels to lie about what values are there, and go through a bunch of trouble to get zoom and data cursors to act sensibly
• you could create a subplot or inset graph that focused on the area of greatest interest

[Joseph Bail]

Bummer. Thank you for the alternative options.

Answer 2

[Chunru]

Yes. You can change the tick locations:

t = 1:200;
x = sinc(2*pi*.125*t);
plot(t, x);
set(gca, 'XTick', [0:20:60 70:10:100 125:25:200])

[Joseph Bail]

Yes, but the scale is still uniform across the x-axis correct? In your example, only the labels are located at locations that are not uniform.

[Chunru]

You can change the tick location any way you want. The above is just an example.

Answer 3

[the cyclist]

Here is a simple example:

x = 1:10;
y = 2*x;

figure
plot(x,y)
xtick_loc = [0:0.5:2 3:2:7 8:0.5:10];
set(gca,'XTick',xtick_loc)

[Joseph Bail]

Perhaps I was not all that clear with my question. I am trying to scale the data differently along my x-axis. The x-axis still has a uniform scale in your example despite the ticks occurring at different locations.