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Axes in JavaScript

How to adjust axes properties in D3.js-based javascript charts. Seven examples of linear and logarithmic axes, axes titles, and styling and coloring axes and grid lines.


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Plotly is a free and open-source graphing library for JavaScript. We recommend you read our Getting Started guide for the latest installation or upgrade instructions, then move on to our Plotly Fundamentals tutorials or dive straight in to some Basic Charts tutorials.

Tick Placement, Color, and Style 

var trace1 = {
  x: [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8],
  y: [8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0],
  type: 'scatter'
};
var trace2 = {
  x: [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8],
  y: [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8],
  type: 'scatter'
};
var data = [trace1, trace2];
var layout = {
  xaxis: {
    tickmode: 'linear',
    ticks: 'outside',
    tick0: 0,
    dtick: 0.25,
    ticklen: 8,
    tickwidth: 4,
    tickcolor: '#000'
  },
  yaxis: {
    tickmode: 'linear',
    ticks: 'outside',
    tick0: 0,
    dtick: 0.25,
    ticklen: 8,
    tickwidth: 4,
    tickcolor: '#000'
  }
};
Plotly.newPlot('myDiv', data, layout);

Styling and Coloring Axes and the Zero-Line 

var trace1 = {
  x: [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8],
  y: [8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0],
  type: 'scatter'
};
var trace2 = {
  x: [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8],
  y: [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8],
  type: 'scatter'
};
var data = [trace1, trace2];
var layout = {
  xaxis: {
    showgrid: true,
    zeroline: true,
    showline: true,
    mirror: 'ticks',
    gridcolor: '#bdbdbd',
    gridwidth: 2,
    zerolinecolor: '#969696',
    zerolinewidth: 4,
    linecolor: '#636363',
    linewidth: 6
  },
  yaxis: {
    showgrid: true,
    zeroline: true,
    showline: true,
    mirror: 'ticks',
    gridcolor: '#bdbdbd',
    gridwidth: 2,
    zerolinecolor: '#969696',
    zerolinewidth: 4,
    linecolor: '#636363',
    linewidth: 6
  }
};
Plotly.newPlot('myDiv', data, layout);

Set and Style Axes Title Labels and Ticks 

d3.csv("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/plotly/datasets/master/finance-charts-apple.csv", function(err, rows){
  function unpack(rows, key) {
  return rows.map(function(row) { return row[key]; });
}

  var x = unpack(rows, 'Date')
  var y = unpack(rows, 'AAPL.Volume')

  var trace = {
    type: "scatter",
    mode: "lines",
    name: 'AAPL Volume',
    x: x,
    y: y,
    line: {color: 'grey'}
  }

  var data = [trace];

var layout = {
  title: {text: 'Volume of Apple Shares Traded'},
  xaxis: {
    title: {
      text: 'AXIS TITLE',
      font: {
          family: 'Arial, sans-serif',
          size: 18,
          color: 'lightgrey'
      }
    },
    showticklabels: true,
    tickangle: 'auto',
    tickfont: {
      family: 'Old Standard TT, serif',
      size: 14,
      color: 'black'
    },
    exponentformat: 'e',
    showexponent: 'all'
  },
  yaxis: {
    title: {
      text: 'AXIS TITLE',
      font: {
        family: 'Arial, sans-serif',
        size: 18,
        color: 'lightgrey'
      }
    },
    showticklabels: true,
    tickangle: 45,
    tickfont: {
      family: 'Old Standard TT, serif',
      size: 14,
      color: 'black'
    },
    exponentformat: 'e',
    showexponent: 'all'
  }
};

Plotly.newPlot('myDiv', data, layout);
})

Setting the Range of Axes Manually 

var trace1 = {
  x: [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8],
  y: [8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0],
  type: 'scatter'
};
var trace2 = {
  x: [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8],
  y: [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8],
  type: 'scatter'
};
var data = [trace1, trace2];
var layout = {
  xaxis: {range: [2, 5]},
  yaxis: {range: [2, 5]}
};
Plotly.newPlot('myDiv', data, layout);

Toggling Axes Lines, Ticks, Labels, and Autorange 

var trace1 = {
  x: [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8],
  y: [8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0],
  type: 'scatter'
};
var trace2 = {
  x: [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8],
  y: [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8],
  type: 'scatter'
};
var data = [trace1, trace2];
var layout = {
  xaxis: {
    autorange: true,
    showgrid: false,
    zeroline: false,
    showline: false,
    autotick: true,
    ticks: '',
    showticklabels: false
  },
  yaxis: {
    autorange: true,
    showgrid: false,
    zeroline: false,
    showline: false,
    autotick: true,
    ticks: '',
    showticklabels: false
  }
};
Plotly.newPlot('myDiv', data, layout);

Enumerated Ticks with Tickvals and Ticktext 

d3.csv('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/plotly/datasets/master/stockdata.csv', function(err, rows){
function unpack(rows, key) {
  return rows.map(function(row)
  { return row[key]; });}

var trace1 = {
  x:unpack(rows, 'Date'),
  y: unpack(rows, 'IBM'),
  mode: 'markers',
  marker: {
    size: 7,
    line: {
    width: 0.5},
    opacity: 0.8},
  type: 'scatter'
};

var layout = {
  title: {
    text: 'IBM Stock Data: Jan 2007 - Mar 2016'
  },
  xaxis: {
    tickvals: ['2007-01-01', '2007-09-01', '2008-01-01', '2008-09-01', '2009-01-01', '2010-01-01', '2011-01-01', '2011-02-14', '2012-01-01', '2013-01-01', '2014-01-01', '2015-01-01', '2016-01-01'],
    ticktext: ['2007', 'Financial Crisis Starts', '2008', 'Financial Crisis Ends', '2009', '2010', '2011', 'IBM wins Jeopardy!', '2012', '2013', '2014', '2015', '2016']
  }
};

var data = [trace1];
Plotly.newPlot('myDiv', data, layout);
});

nonnegative, tozero, and normal Rangemode 

var data = [
  {
    x: [2, 4, 6],
    y: [-3, 0, 3],
    type: 'scatter'
  }
];
var layout = {
  showlegend: false,
  xaxis: {
    rangemode: 'tozero',
    autorange: true
  },
  yaxis: {
    rangemode: 'nonnegative',
    autorange: true
  }
};
Plotly.newPlot('myDiv', data, layout);

Logarithmic Axes 

var trace1 = {
  x: [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8],
  y: [8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0],
  type: 'scatter'
};
var trace2 = {
  x: [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8],
  y: [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8],
  type: 'scatter'
};
var data = [trace1, trace2];
var layout = {
  xaxis: {
    type: 'log',
    autorange: true
  },
  yaxis: {
    type: 'log',
    autorange: true
  }
};
Plotly.newPlot('myDiv', data, layout);

Set Axis Title Position

This example sets standoff attribute to cartesian axes to determine the distance between the tick labels and the axis title. Note that the axis title position is always constrained within the margins, so the actual standoff distance is always less than the set or default value. By setting standoff and turning automargin on, plotly.js will push the margins to fit the axis title at given standoff distance.

var data = [{
      mode: "lines+markers",
      x:["December", "January", "February"],
      y:[4,1,3]
    }]

 var layout = {
      margin: {t:0,r:0,b:0,l:20},
      xaxis: {
        automargin: true,
        tickangle: 90,
        title: {
          text: "Month",
          standoff: 20
        }},
      yaxis: {
        automargin: true,
        tickangle: 90,
        title: {
          text: "Temperature",
          standoff: 40
        }}}

Plotly.newPlot('myDiv', data, layout)

Reversed Axes 

var data = [
  {
    x: [1, 2],
    y: [1, 2],
    type: 'scatter'
  }
];
var layout = {xaxis: {autorange: 'reversed'}};
Plotly.newPlot('myDiv', data, layout);

Reversed Axes with Range ( Min/Max ) Specified 

var data = [
  {
    x: [0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.51, 0.61, 0.71, 0.81, 0.91, 1.01, 1.11, 1.21, 1.31, 1.41, 1.52, 1.62, 1.72, 1.82, 1.92, 2.02, 2.12, 2.22, 2.32, 2.42, 2.53, 2.63, 2.73, 2.83, 2.93, 3.03, 3.13, 3.23, 3.33, 3.43, 3.54, 3.64, 3.74, 3.84, 3.94, 4.04, 4.14, 4.24, 4.34, 4.44, 4.55, 4.65, 4.75, 4.85, 4.95, 5.05, 5.15, 5.25, 5.35, 5.45, 5.56, 5.66, 5.76, 5.86, 5.96, 6.06, 6.16, 6.26, 6.36, 6.46, 6.57, 6.67, 6.77, 6.87, 6.97, 7.07, 7.17, 7.27, 7.37, 7.47, 7.58, 7.68, 7.78, 7.88, 7.98, 8.08, 8.18, 8.28, 8.38, 8.48, 8.59, 8.69, 8.79, 8.89, 8.99, 9.09, 9.19, 9.29, 9.39, 9.49, 9.6, 9.7, 9.8, 9.9, 10.0],
    y: [63, 65, 78, 92, 12, 50, 17, 31, 1, 25, 76, 66, 83, 38, 95, 23, 20, 88, 31, 26, 39, 74, 11, 84, 7, 13, 30, 85, 80, 47, 12, 89, 12, 35, 99, 78, 77, 56, 26, 13, 96, 55, 19, 88, 31, 1, 42, 39, 99, 62, 68, 61, 45, 44, 10, 25, 89, 82, 28, 2, 24, 1, 32, 16, 29, 40, 55, 75, 20, 41, 67, 33, 92, 14, 16, 22, 86, 55, 37, 42, 42, 85, 60, 11, 54, 3, 34, 29, 59, 28, 25, 67, 90, 10, 29, 16, 51, 17, 2, 34],
    mode: "markers"
  }
];
var layout = {
  title: {
    text: "Reversed Axis with Min/Max"
  },
  xaxis: {
    range: [10, 0]
  }
};
Plotly.newPlot('myDiv', data, layout);

Categorical Axes 

var trace1 = {
  x: ['A12', 'BC2', 109, '12F', 215, 304],
  y: [1, 6, 3, 5, 1, 4],
  mode: 'markers',
  type: 'bar',
  name: 'Team A',
  text: ['Apples', 'Pears', 'Peaches', 'Bananas', 'Pineapples', 'Cherries'],
};

var data = [ trace1 ];

var layout = {
  xaxis: {
    type: 'category',
    title: {
        text: 'Product Code'
    }
    },
    yaxis: {
        range: [0, 7],
        title: {
            text: 'Number of Items in Stock'
        }
    },
  title: {text: 'Inventory'}
};

Plotly.newPlot('myDiv', data, layout);

Multi-Category Axes 

var trace1 = {
  x: [
    ['SF Zoo','SF Zoo','SF Zoo'],
    ['giraffes', 'orangutans', 'monkeys']
  ],
  y: [20, 14, 23],
  name: 'SF Zoo',
  type: 'bar'
};

var trace2 = {
  x: [
    ['LA Zoo','LA Zoo','LA Zoo'],
    ['giraffes', 'orangutans', 'monkeys']
  ],
  y: [12, 18, 29],
  name: 'LA Zoo',
  type: 'bar'
};

var data = [trace1, trace2];
var layout = {
  showlegend: false,
  xaxis: {
    tickson: "boundaries",
    ticklen: 15,
    showdividers: true,
    dividercolor: 'grey',
    dividerwidth: 2
  }
};

Plotly.newPlot('myDiv', data, layout);

Using Dates on the X-Axis 

var trace1 = {
  x: ['2000-01-01', '2000-01-02', '2000-01-03', '2000-01-04', '2000-01-05', '2000-01-06', '2000-01-07', '2000-01-08', '2000-01-09', '2000-01-10', '2000-01-11', '2000-01-12', '2000-01-13', '2000-01-14', '2000-01-15', '2000-01-16', '2000-01-17', '2000-01-18', '2000-01-19', '2000-01-20', '2000-01-21', '2000-01-22', '2000-01-23', '2000-01-24', '2000-01-25', '2000-01-26', '2000-01-27', '2000-01-28', '2000-01-29', '2000-01-30', '2000-01-31'],
  y: [4.3, 8.2, 4.1, 5.6, -3, -0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 4.1, 5, 4.6, -0.2, -8.5, -9.1, -2.7, -2.7, -17, -11.3, -5.5, -6.5, -16.9, -12, -6.1, -6.6, -7.9, -10.8, -14.8, -11, -4.4, -1.3, -1.1],
  mode: 'lines',
  type: 'scatter',
  name: '2000'
};

var data = [ trace1 ];

var layout = {
  xaxis: {
    type: 'date',
    title: {
      text: 'January Weather'
    }
  },
  yaxis: {
    title: {
      text: 'Daily Mean Temperature'
    }
  },
  title: {
    text: '2000 Toronto January Weather'
  }
};

Plotly.newPlot('myDiv', data, layout);

Fixed-Ratio Axes 

var trace0 = {
  x: [0,1,1,0,0,1,1,2,2,3,3,2,2,3],
  y: [0,0,1,1,3,3,2,2,3,3,1,1,0,0]
}

var trace1 = {
  x: [0,1,2,3],
  y: [1,2,4,8],
  yaxis:"y2"
}

var trace2 = {
  x: [1,10,100,10,1],
  y: [0,1,2,3,4],
  xaxis: "x2",
  yaxis:"y3",
}

var trace3 = {
  x: [1,100,30,80,1],
  y: [1,1.5,2,2.5,3],
  xaxis:"x2",
  yaxis:"y4"
}

var data = [trace0,trace1,trace2,trace3]

var layout = {
  width: 800,
  height: 500,
  title: {
      text: "fixed-ratio axes"
  },
  xaxis: {
      nticks: 10,
      domain: [0, 0.45],
      title: {
          text: "shared X axis"
      }
  },
  yaxis: {
      scaleanchor: "x",
      domain: [0, 0.45],
      title: {
          text: "1:1"
      }
  },
  yaxis2: {
      scaleanchor: "x",
      scaleratio: 0.2,
      domain: [0.55, 1],
      title: {
          text: "1:5"
      }
  },
  xaxis2: {
      type: "log",
      domain: [0.55, 1],
      anchor: "y3",
      title: {
          text: "unconstrained log X"
      }
  },
  yaxis3: {
      domain: [0, 0.45],
      anchor: "x2",
      title: {
          text: "Scale matches ->"
      }
  },
  yaxis4: {
      scaleanchor: "y3",
      domain: [0.55, 1],
      anchor: "x2",
      title: {
          text: "Scale matches <-"
      }
  },
  showlegend: false
}

Plotly.newPlot('myDiv', data, layout)

Specifying Label Aliases

This example uses labelalias to update the text displayed for the x-axis values.

var trace1 = {
  x: ['UK', 'US', 'Germany', 'France'],
  y: [8, 3, 10, 3],
  type: 'bar',
};

var data = [trace1];

var layout = {
xaxis: {
  labelalias: {
    UK: '🇬🇧 United Kingdom',
    US: '🇺🇸 United States',
    Germany: '🇩🇪 Germany',
    France: '🇫🇷 France'}
  },
};

Plotly.newPlot('myDiv', data, layout);

Use Base64-Encoded Typed Arrays

Plotly.js 2.28.0 and later supports using base64-encoded typed arrays. To use a base64-encoded typed array, pass an object with the keys bdata (a base64-encoded string or the ArrayBuffer of an integer or float typed array) and dtype (the data type of the array, where the supported types are float64, float32, int32, uint32, int16, uint16, int8, uint8, and uint8c). You can also specify shape for multidimensional arrays. For example, '4,10' would be a 2D array with 4 rows and 10 columns.

var x = 'VVVVVVVV1b8AAAAAAAAAAFVVVVVVVdU/'
var y = 'q6qqPquqqr4='
var z = 'AABkAMgALAGQAfQB'

var trace1 = {
  x: {
    bdata: x,
    dtype: 'f8'
  },
  y: {
    bdata: y,
    dtype: 'f4'
  },
  z: {
    bdata: z,
    dtype: 'u2',
    shape: '2,3'
  },
  type: 'surface'
};

var data = [trace1];

Plotly.newPlot('myDiv', data);