place labels between ticks

Question

in matplotlib, how do i place ticks labels between ticks (not below ticks)

for example: when plotting a the stock price over time i would like the x axis minor ticks to display months and the years to show up between consecutive x axis major ticks (not just below the major ticks)

---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---
  jan feb mar apr may jun jul aug sep oct nov dec jan feb mar apr may jun jul aug sep
                       2008                                            2009

Answer 1

Will this do the trick?

enter code here
x = 'j f m a m j j a s o n d j f m a m j j a s o n d'.split()
y = abs(randn(24))
x[6] = 'j\n2008' # replace "j" (January) with ('j' and the appropriate year
x[18] = 'j\n2009'
bar(xrange(len(x)), y, width=0.1)
bar(xrange(len(x)), y, width=0.1)
xticks(xrange(len(x)), x, ha='center')

Answer 2

Do you mean something like this: - http://matplotlib.sourceforge.net/examples/pylab_examples/barchart_demo.html ??

You must use xticks and the ha (or 'horizontalalignment') parameter:

>>> x = 'j f m a m j j a s o n d'.split()
>>> y = abs(randn(12))
>>> bar(xrange(len(x)), y, width=0.1)

>>> xticks(xrange(len(x)), x, ha='center')

look at help(xticks) and help(matplotlib.text.Text) for more options

edit: sorry, I didn't see you are also asking for how to put the years labels below ticks. I think you must do it manually, have a look at the example I have linked to see how to do it.