Why won't my x-axis tick label format change?

Hello,

I have provided my code and the figure it creates in this post. I've tried everything that I know of to change the x-axis numbers on the graph. I have tried xtickformat, ax = gca, ax.XAxis.Exponent = 0 and ax.XTickLabelMode = 'manual'.

My goal is to make the x-axis tick values appear like: "10, 1, 0.1, 0.001" etc. instead of containing exponent values.

If anybody could give me guidance on where my code is causing the trouble or a function I am unaware of that can help me solve this problem it would be greatly appreciated! I am fairly new to MatLab and am really enjoying it so any tips in general to imrpove this short code is also appreciated.

% Perecent passing 
y = [100 99.69 99.69 99.62 99.48 99 98.65 91.09 73.63 ...
      73.28 70.09 68.50 66.91 60.53 57.35 52.57 49.38 ...
      47.79 44.60 43.01 41.42];
% Particle diameter (mm) 
x = [19 9.5 4.76 2 0.85 0.42 0.3 0.149 0.075 0.0698 ...
     0.0391 0.0284 0.0197 0.0140 0.0105 0.0075 0.0054...
     0.0038 0.0031 0.0026 0.0011];
 
semilogx(x,y,'linewidth',0.85)
    xlim([0.001 100]);
    ylim([0 100]);
    ax = gca;
    set(ax, 'XDir','reverse');
    ytickformat('%g%%');
    title('Grain Size Analysis: Clayey Soil','FontWeight','normal');
    ylabel('Percent passing','FontSize',12);
    xlabel('Grain size (mm)','FontSize',12);
grid

l1 = yline(73.63,'--k',{'Silt sized','particles'});
l2 = yline(42,'--k',{'Clay sized','particles'});
    l1.LabelVerticalAlignment = 'middle';
    l1.LabelHorizontalAlignment = 'center';
    l2.LabelVerticalAlignment = 'middle';
    l2.LabelHorizontalAlignment = 'center';
    

Answer 1

[Star Strider]

Add these two lines to your code:

    xt_sigfig = round(xt, 3, 'significant');
    ax.XTickLabel = xt_sigfig;

so the complete code is now:

% Perecent passing 
y = [100 99.69 99.69 99.62 99.48 99 98.65 91.09 73.63 ...
      73.28 70.09 68.50 66.91 60.53 57.35 52.57 49.38 ...
      47.79 44.60 43.01 41.42];
% Particle diameter (mm) 
x = [19 9.5 4.76 2 0.85 0.42 0.3 0.149 0.075 0.0698 ...
     0.0391 0.0284 0.0197 0.0140 0.0105 0.0075 0.0054...
     0.0038 0.0031 0.0026 0.0011];
 
semilogx(x,y,'linewidth',0.85)
    xlim([0.001 100]);
    ylim([0 100]);
    ax = gca;
    set(ax, 'XDir','reverse');
    ytickformat('%g%%');
    title('Grain Size Analysis: Clayey Soil','FontWeight','normal');
    ylabel('Percent passing','FontSize',12);
    xlabel('Grain size (mm)','FontSize',12);
    xt = ax.XTick;
    xt_sigfig = round(xt, 3, 'significant');
    ax.XTickLabel = xt_sigfig;
grid
l1 = yline(73.63,'--k',{'Silt sized','particles'});
l2 = yline(42,'--k',{'Clay sized','particles'});
    l1.LabelVerticalAlignment = 'middle';
    l1.LabelHorizontalAlignment = 'center';
    l2.LabelVerticalAlignment = 'middle';
    l2.LabelHorizontalAlignment = 'center';

to produce this plot:

The plot now has the desired x-tick label format.

[Brendan Laney]

Very appreciate the quick response! I had no idea that code you suggested was even an option. That will be very handy to know, thanks again.

[Star Strider]

As always, my pleasure!

The 'significant' option is relatively new (I believe R2016b).