matplotlib / matplotlib/matplotlib

[ENH]: Automatically trim the time on the x axis

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New feature status: duplicate topic: date handling topic: ticks axis labels
Dominant language
Python
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Description

### Problem

I would like to have the x-axis showing the timestamps of the samples of audio files. Here is a minimal example:

```
import numpy as np
from matplotlib import pyplot as plt
from matplotlib import dates as mdates
from scipy.io import wavfile

# Open the WAV files
audio_1 = wavfile.read("audio1.wav")
freq_audio_1 = audio_1[0]
samples_1 = audio_1[1][:, 0] # Turn to mono

audio_2 = wavfile.read("audio2.wav")
freq_audio_2 = audio_2[0]
samples_2 = audio_2[1][:, 0] # Turn to mono

# Create the timestamps
t_audio_1 = np.arange(0, len(samples_1)) / freq_audio_1
t_audio_2 = np.arange(0, len(samples_2)) / freq_audio_2

# We turn them into datetime
t_audio_1 = np.array(t_audio_1*1000, dtype="datetime64[ms]")
t_audio_2 = np.array(t_audio_2*1000, dtype="datetime64[ms]")

# Create the figure
fig, ax = plt.subplots(1, 2, constrained_layout=True)

# If the audio files are more than 1 hour, we format as HH:MM:SS, else just MM:SS
if len(samples_1) / freq_audio_1 >= 3600 and len(samples_2) / freq_audio_2 >= 3600 :
formatter = mdates.AutoDateFormatter(mdates.AutoDateLocator(), defaultfmt='%H:%M:%S')
else:
formatter = mdates.AutoDateFormatter(mdates.AutoDateLocator(), defaultfmt='%M:%S')

plt.gcf().axes[0].xaxis.set_major_formatter(formatter)
plt.gcf().axes[1].xaxis.set_major_formatter(formatter)

ax[0].plot(t_audio_1, samples_1)
ax[1].plot(t_audio_2, samples_2)
plt.show()
```
Here is the output:
![Figure_11](https://github.com/matplotlib/matplotlib/assets/9433716/953eef6f-f764-413a-8995-73fd6300d079)

As you can see, the microsecond precision makes so that the ticks on the x axis are shown on top of each other.

### Proposed solution

The ideal would be to have the plot automatically decide how many significant digits after the comma are necessary, depending on the level of zoom (in a similar fashion to the way Audacity displays timestamps).

Thank you :)

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reproducing the minimal audio timestamp example and read the behavior of mdates.AutoDateFormatter and mdates.AutoDateLocator at different zoom levels. Done means the x-axis automatically avoids overlapping timestamp labels by selecting appropriate precision, while still displaying useful time information for short and long audio ranges.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
numpy, python
Domain
data-visualization
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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