# axis properties

description of the axis entity properties

## Description

The Axis entity is a leaf of the graphics entities hierarchy. This entity defines the parameters for axis scaling and appearance.

Axis properties
  parent:

    This property contains the handle of the parent. The parent of the axis entity should be of the type `"Axes"` or `"Compound"`.

  visible:

    This field contains the `visible` property value for the entity . It should be `"on"` or `"off"` . By default, the axis entity is visible, the value's property is `"on"`. If `"off"`, the axis is not drawn on the screen.

  tics_direction:

    Specify the direction of the tics drawn under the horizontal axis and the vertical axis. The possible values of this property are:

    - `"top"`. In this case, tics are drawn at the top of the horizontal axis.

    - `"bottom"`. In this case, tics are drawn at the bottom of the horizantal axis.

    - `"left"`. In this case, tics are going left on the vertical axis.

    - `"right"`. In this case, tics are going right on the vertical axis.

    The defaults values are `"top"` for the horizontal axis and `"right"` for vertical axis.

  xtics_coord:

    This field represents the x-coordinate of the axis. It is a row vector containing values increasing from left to right which give tics positions for a horizontal axis. Other case, the entity is a vertical axis, this property contain a scale which defines the x-origin of the axis.

  ytics_coord:

    This field represents the y-coordinate of the axis. It is a row vector containing values increasing from bottom to top which give tics positions for a vertical axis. Other case, the entity is a horizontal axis, this property contain a scale which defines the y-origin of the axis.

  tics_color:

    The value of this properties is index of the color used to draw the axis'lines and tics.

  tics_segment:

    This field contains a flag which controls the display of the base segment of the axis. The default is `"on"`, else if to not display it, the property takes `"off"` as value.

  tics_style:

    This property describes how the tics are given. It is a string flag which can have these possible values:

    - `"v"`. It's the default value, In this case, tics positions are given by the row factor `xtics_coord` for horizontal axis (`ytics_coord` for the vertical one).

    - `"r"`. In this case, tics positions are given by the vector `[min,max,n]` where n is the number of intervals.

    - `"i"`. In this case the vector given tics positions is of size 4, `[k1,k2,a,n]` then values are increasing between `k1*10^a` and `k2*10^a`, n is the number of intervals.

  sub_tics:

    This field sets the number of tics to draw between two main tics.

  tics_labels:

    This field is a string matrix, which contains the strings to be drawn along the axis at tics positions.

  format_n:

    This property is a character string which specifies the floating-point display format of the tics labels numbers, when relevant. It uses the format syntax of the C language printf function (for example `"%.3f"`). If equal to `""`, a default display format is used.

  labels_font_color:

    This property determines the color of the tics labels.

  labels_font_size:

    It is a scalar specifying the character size of tics labels. If `fractional_font` property is `"off"` only the integer part of the value is used. For more information see graphics_fonts.

  fractional_font:

    This property specifies whether ticks labels are displayed using fractional font sizes. Its value must be either `"on"` or `"off"`. If `"on"` the floating point value of `font_size` is used for display and the font is anti-aliased. If `"off"` only the integer part is used and the font is not smoothed.

  clip_state:

    This field contains the `clip_state` property value for the arc. Clip_state value should be :

    - `"off"` this means that the axis is not clipped

    - `"clipgrf"` this means that the axis is clipped outside the Axes box.

    - `"on"` this means that the axis is clipped outside the arc given by property clip_box.

  clip_box:

    This field is to determinate the `clip_box` property. By Default its value should be an empty matrix if clip_state is "off". Other cases the vector `[x,y,w,h]` (upper-left point width height) defines the portions of the axis to display, however `clip_state` property value will be changed.

  user_data:

    This field can be used to store any scilab variable in the axis data structure, and to retrieve it.

## Examples

    a=get("current_axes");//get the handle of the newly created axes
    a.data_bounds=[-1,-1;10,10];

    drawaxis(x=2:7,y=4,dir='u');
    a1=a.children(1)
    a1.xtics_coord=[1 4 5  8 10];
    a1.tics_color=2;
    a1.labels_font_size=3;
    a1.tics_direction="bottom";
    a1.tics_labels= [" February" "May"  "june" "August"  "October"];

    drawaxis(x=1.2:1:10,y=5,dir='u',textcolor=13);
    a2=get("hdl")
    a2.sub_tics=0;
    a2.tics_segment="off";
    a2.ytics_coord=4;

    drawaxis(x=-1,y=0:1:7,dir='r',fontsize=10,textcolor=5,ticscolor=6,sub_int=10)
    a3=get("hdl");
    a3.tics_labels= 'B'  +string(0:7);
    a3.tics_direction="left";

## See Also

- set
- get
- delete
- drawaxis
- graphics_entities