Plotting double vs datetime (DD-MM-YY), only the year is used from the datetime

I am trying to plot datetime data (y axis) against double precision (x axis), but only the year is extracted from the datetime data. The two data files are attached.

Based on the matlab doc and six similar inquiries on this question, this should work, but there's evidently something I'm missing.

[Les Beckham]

Your mat files each contain over 100 variables and we have no idea which of them you are trying to plot.

Please post the code you are using to make the plot(s).

w = whos('-file', 'YEAR_1stIce.mat')

w = 103×1 struct array with fields:
    name
    size
    bytes
    class
    global
    sparse
    complex
    nesting
    persistent

w = whos('-file', 'DATE_1stIce_CB.mat')

w = 103×1 struct array with fields:
    name
    size
    bytes
    class
    global
    sparse
    complex
    nesting
    persistent

[Walter Roberson]

Please be more specific about your plotting command. There are a fair number of different variables in the files.

[Paul Barrette]

Thanks and sorry - I should have provided more information. I'll spend some time understanding those files first.

Answer 1

[Peter Perkins]

Paul, in addition to what Walter said, those mat files each contain a bunch of 23041xN variables. Likely you would benefit from storing all those in one timetable.

[Paul Barrette]

Yes, timetable is the way to go for what I'm working with.

Answer 2

[Walter Roberson]

Speculating about what you are plotting:

If you

plot(SNOW_GP,DATE)

then your y axis has about 40 years. In order for it to be meaningful to display month as part of the output, you would need to have at least 80 yticks -- unless, that is, you wanted to do something like mark every 2 1/2 years.

You can use code such as

ax = gcal
ax.YRuler.TickLabelFormat = 'uuuu-mm';

but unless you yticks to include some mid-year dates, it is not going to be useful to do so.

[Paul Barrette]

Thank you for this, Walter. That does clarify the issue. I will spend more time on this.