How to set labelled frame ticks on a plot

Question

I wanted to make a plot with custom frame ticks. For example, lets say I want to make a plot

 ListPlot[{{1.1,3.9},{2.9,3.1}},
   Axes->None,Frame->{{True,False},{True,False}},PlotRange->{{1,3},{3,4}}
 ]

but I want to change the frame ticks so that only 1, 2, and 3 show up on the x-axis, and there are only ticks at 3 and 4 on the y-axis and these ticks say "low" and "hi" respectively.

In the documentation for frameticks it gives the example

Plot[Sin[x], {x, 0, 10},
  Frame -> True, 
  FrameTicks -> {{{0, 0 \[Degree]}, {Pi, 180 \[Degree]}, {2 Pi,  360 \[Degree]}, {3 Pi, 540 \[Degree]}}, {-1/2, 1/2}}
]

This is also the pattern suggested in this answer.

Following this pattern, it seems I should try

ListPlot[{{1.1,3.9},{2.9,3.1}},
  Axes->None,Frame->{{True,False},{True,False}},PlotRange->{{1,3},{3,4}},
  FrameTicks->{{1,2,3},{{3,"low"},{4,"high"}}}
]

however, this produces an error. I have also tried

Show[
  ListPlot[{{1.1,3.9},{2.9,3.1}},
    Axes->None,Frame->{{True,False},{True,False}},PlotRange->{{1,3},{3,4}}
  ],
  FrameTicks->{{1,2,3},{{3,"low"},{4,"high"}}}
]

but this also produces an error. Somehow putting FrameTicks in quotes in the previous line fixes the error:

Show[
  ListPlot[{{1.1,3.9},{2.9,3.1}},
    Axes->None,Frame->{{True,False},{True,False}},PlotRange->{{1,3},{3,4}}
  ],
  "FrameTicks"->{{1,2,3},{{3,"low"},{4,"high"}}}
]

But I feel like I am doing this wrong way. Is there a better way to do this?

score 3 · Answer 1 · edited Sep 01 '17 at 13:45

Yes, do

ListPlot[{{1.1,3.9},{2.9,3.1}},
  Axes->None,Frame->{{True,False},{True,False}},PlotRange->{{1,3},{3,4}},
  FrameTicks->{{{{3,"3.0"},{4,"4.0"}},None},{{1,2,3},None}}
]

As stated in the documentation for FrameTicks, FrameTicks expects the option value to be in the form {{left, right}, {top, bottom}}, and if it doesn't think you gave an option value in that form, it will look for the form {x, y}. Since your {{3, "low"}, {4, "high"}} list has length two, it gets confused and thinks you are trying to give it an option value in the form {{left, right}, {top, bottom}}. To avoid this, just explicitly put your FrameTicks option value in the preferred form.

Note that if you had put three ticks on the y-axis (FrameTicks -> {{1, 2, 3}, {{3, "low"}, {3.5, "medium"}, {4, "high"}}}) it would have worked, since now the y ticks does not have length 2 so Mathematica does not get confused about whether you are using the {{left, right}, {bottom, top}} form or the {x, y} form.

How to set labelled frame ticks on a plot

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