Specify times and dates in Pgfplots

Question

I have x-data as dates associated with float values; plotting them with pgfplots is as easy as

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\usepgfplotslibrary{dateplot}
\pgfplotsset{compat=newest}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}

\begin{axis}[
  date coordinates in=x,
  xticklabel style={rotate=90,anchor=near xticklabel},
  xticklabel=\year-\month-\day
]
\addplot table [red] {%
  2016-10-10 50
  2016-10-11 56
};
\end{axis}

\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Now, I have dates plus times. Simply adding them to the table obviously results in a failed compilation

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\usepgfplotslibrary{dateplot}
\pgfplotsset{compat=newest}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}

\begin{axis}[
  date coordinates in=x,
  xticklabel style={rotate=90,anchor=near xticklabel},
  xticklabel=\year-\month-\day
]
\addplot table [red] {%
  2016-10-10 13:10 50
  2016-10-11 12:55 56
};
\end{axis}

\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

! Package PGF Math Error: Could not parse input '12:55' as a floating 
point number, sorry. The unreadable part was near ':55'..

How to specify times then?

Are you looking for https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/445564/121799 ? — , Mar 20 '19 at 16:31
@marmot It should be much easier than that; Pgfplot does support times after all. — Nico Schlömer, Mar 20 '19 at 16:40
Yes, but you have to help pgfplots then to judge whether a space separates the time from the day or a column. — , Mar 20 '19 at 16:48
@marmot Indeed. I wouldn't mind adding commas with a col sep, but that doesn't work either. — Nico Schlömer, Mar 20 '19 at 17:16

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 20 '19 at 17:26

I do not have any problems after adding a comma. Since you added the option red to the table: where did you add col sep=comma and header=false? At least this works:

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\usepgfplotslibrary{dateplot}
\pgfplotsset{compat=newest}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}

\begin{axis}[
  date coordinates in=x,
  xticklabel style={rotate=90,anchor=near xticklabel},
  xmin=2016-10-10 00:00,
  xmax=2016-10-12 00:00,
  xticklabel=\year-\month-\day
]
\addplot[only marks] table [col sep=comma,header=false] {%
  2016-10-10 13:10,50
  2016-10-11 12:55,56
};
\end{axis}

\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Great, I'd been missing header=false. – Nico Schlömer Mar 20 '19 at 23:33 — Nico Schlömer, Mar 20 '19 at 23:33

Specify times and dates in Pgfplots

1 Answers1