how to set a frequency of x axis of a plot?

I have a plot

plot(yyyyMM,temperature)

This plot has x axis that shows year. But I want to have more fine ticks such as quaterly, monthly, etc. How can one set such frequency?

[KALYAN ACHARJYA]

Can you show us some pictorial representation?

[alpedhuez]

Like

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/473256-showing-years-on-x-axis-graph

Answer 1

[dpb]

If your variable is (as was suggested in other thread asking about formatting it) a datetime, just use xticks with the time span you want (as datetimes/durations).

[alpedhuez]

How can one set like every 3 month? every six month? How can one have vertical presentation of months like

https://www.google.com/search?q=chart+excel+month+vertical&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwjtpaWf6rbqAhWlV98KHUPuCtkQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=chart+excel+month+vertical&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQAzoGCAAQCBAeUKAsWPozYNw1aABwAHgAgAFNiAHzBJIBATmYAQCgAQGqAQtnd3Mtd2l6LWltZw&sclient=img&ei=zicCX-2GKaWv_QbD3KvIDQ&bih=481&biw=1024#imgrc=YekbgsmW7apfVM

Answer 2

[dpb]

Read up on datetime and plot and the DatetimeRuler...

t=datetime(2018:2033,1,1);   y=randn(size(t));  % dummy data over your time frame
plot(t,y)
xl=xlim;                                    % get the axis limits array
xt=xl(1)+calmonths(0:6:(2032-2018+1)*6*2);  % compute ticks on 6 calendar month cycle
xticks(xt)                                  % and set on graph
hAx=gca;                                    % get axes handle
hAx.XAxis.TickLabelRotation=45;             % rotate the labels 45 degrees

Above yields

As you'll observe, date tick labels take up a lot of room; you'll have to stretch out the axis, make the font smaller, shorten the format chosen or just use fewer of 'em, but that's the basics.

It's no problem if use the right data class.

hAx.XAxis.TickLabelInterpreter='none';
hAx.XAxis.TickLabelFormat='yyyy_MM';

will set the format string to display the yyyy_MM string which is a little less verbose -- the underscore gets interpreted as subscript for subsequent character w/ default 'TeX' interpreter; hence the 'none'