Remove the first and last values of xtick and ytick

Question

I use the following code to create a tufte-like range plot as suggested here: Tufte like axis with pgfplots

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\pgfplotsset{compat=newest}

\makeatletter
\def\pgfplotsdataxmin{\pgfplots@data@xmin}
\def\pgfplotsdataxmax{\pgfplots@data@xmax}
\def\pgfplotsdataymin{\pgfplots@data@ymin}
\def\pgfplotsdataymax{\pgfplots@data@ymax}
\makeatother

\pgfplotsset{
    range frame/.style={
        axis lines*=left,
        enlargelimits=false,        
        axis line shift=10pt,
        xlabel style={yshift=-10pt},
        ylabel style={yshift=10pt},     
    },
    tufte extra ticks/.style={
        extra x ticks={
            \pgfplotsdataxmin,
            \pgfplotsdataxmax
        },
        extra y ticks={
            \pgfplotsdataymin,
            \pgfplotsdataymax
        },
    }       
}

\begin{document}
    \begin{tikzpicture}
    \begin{axis}[
        range frame,
        tufte extra ticks,
    ]
    \addplot +[black, mark options=fill=black] coordinates {(948e-6,1.61981) (1.5e-3,1.02377) (2e-3,0.769047) (2.5e-3,0.614994) (3.2e-3,0.503511)};
    \end{axis}
    \end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

For reasons obvious from the image, is it possible to automatically remove the first and last tick from every axis (the values stored in xtick and ytick, not extra x ticks and extra y ticks) such that there is no overlap?

Answer 1

Though the answer comes pretty late, I recently had a similar problem when using extra y ticks = ...:

This solved the issue for me by individually not drawing the unwanted extra labels if they exceed some specified value (note that I had to use the \ifdim hack in order to be able to compare two floating point numbers):

  yticklabel={
  \pgfmathsetmacro\upBound{0.9*\pgfkeysvalueof{/pgfplots/ymax}+0.1*\pgfkeysvalueof{/pgfplots/ymin}}
  \pgfmathsetmacro\loBound{0.1*\pgfkeysvalueof{/pgfplots/ymax}+0.9*\pgfkeysvalueof{/pgfplots/ymin}}
  \ifdim \tick pt > \upBound pt 
      \ifnum \ticknum = 1
          $\pgfmathprintnumber{\tick}$
      \fi
  \else
      \ifdim \tick pt < \loBound pt
          \ifnum \ticknum = 0
              $\pgfmathprintnumber{\tick}$
          \fi
      \else
          $\pgfmathprintnumber{\tick}$
      \fi
  \fi
}

As one can easily see, this works pretty well, automatically generates values at reasonable distances, but spares the unwanted overlapping tick labels. However, it has the disadvantage of displaying an unlabeled tick right below the maximum value. Thus, another solution would be to use the ytick={10,15,...,35} syntax. Using this syntax, you get

Normally, I would mostly prefer the second solution. However, it comes along with the disadvantage, that you have to specify the distance between the ticks manually. Otherwise, the \foreach (which generates the ticks behind the scenes) would generate a way too high number of ticks. Manual tuning is perfectly alright, if you just want to generate some few plots, that can be manually tweaked. However, if you're plotting a greater number of plots, you might be more comfortable with the specification of automatic thresholds :)

So, finally, here's an MWE containing a reduced dataset and both soluations mentioned above:

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage[latin1]{inputenc}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\usepackage{siunitx}

\pgfplotsset{compat=newest}
\usepgfplotslibrary{colormaps,colorbrewer}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
    \begin{axis}[ width=0.8\textwidth, height = 8cm,
                  colorbar,
                  scaled ticks=false,
                  /pgf/number format/.cd, 1000 sep={},
                  colorbar style = {
                      ylabel = {$\Delta t$ [ms]},
                      extra y ticks = { \pgfkeysvalueof{/pgfplots/ymin}, \pgfkeysvalueof{/pgfplots/ymax} },
                      yticklabel={
                          \pgfmathsetmacro\upBound{0.9*\pgfkeysvalueof{/pgfplots/ymax}+0.1*\pgfkeysvalueof{/pgfplots/ymin}}
                          \pgfmathsetmacro\loBound{0.1*\pgfkeysvalueof{/pgfplots/ymax}+0.9*\pgfkeysvalueof{/pgfplots/ymin}}
                          \ifdim \tick pt > \upBound pt 
                              \ifnum \ticknum = 1
                                  $\pgfmathprintnumber{\tick}$
                              \fi
                          \else
                              \ifdim \tick pt < \loBound pt
                                  \ifnum \ticknum = 0
                                      $\pgfmathprintnumber{\tick}$
                                  \fi
                              \else
                                  $\pgfmathprintnumber{\tick}$
                              \fi
                          \fi
                      },
%                      ytick={10,15,...,35},
                      y tick label style = {/pgf/number format/.cd, fixed, zerofill, precision=2, 1000 sep={}}
                  },
                  colormap name={viridis},
                  view={0}{90},
                  xtick=data,
                  xlabel={$k_{\mathrm{p}}$ [\si{kN/m}]},
                  ytick=data,
                  ylabel={$k_{\mathrm{d}}$ [\si{kN.s/m}]},
                  major tick length = 0cm,
                  grid = major,
                  grid style ={color=darkgray},
                  title={$k_{\mathrm{i}}=10$ \si{N/m.s}}
                ]

        \addplot3[ surf, shader=interp ]
            table[x expr=\thisrow{kp}/1000, y expr=\thisrow{kd}/1000, z expr=\thisrow{tStepMax}*1000] {% {../parvar_base/parvar_ki_10.txt};
        iVar  kp      ki      kd      tStepMax              
        16    15000   10      0       0.0269140625        
        17    15000   10      1000    0.02672851563       
        18    15000   10      2500    0.0126953125        
        19    15000   10      4000    0.008140625         
        20    15000   10      5000    0.006546875         

        21    20000   10      0       0.04078125          
        22    20000   10      1000    0.0253515625        
        23    20000   10      2500    0.01251953125       
        24    20000   10      4000    0.00809375          
        25    20000   10      5000    0.00653515625       

        26    25000   10      0       0.0395703125        
        27    25000   10      1000    0.024140625         
        28    25000   10      2500    0.01236328125       
        29    25000   10      4000    0.00803125          
        30    25000   10      5000    0.0065078125          
        };
    \end{axis}

\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}