# 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.

  labels_font_style:

    Specifies the font used to display the legend labels. This is a positive integer referencing one of the loaded fonts. Its value must be between 0, referencing the first font, and the number of loaded fonts minus one, referencing the last font. 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