Matplotlib: Specify format of floats for tick labels

format labels using lambda function

3x the same plot with differnt y-labeling

Minimal example

import numpy as np
import matplotlib as mpl
import matplotlib.pylab as plt
from matplotlib.ticker import FormatStrFormatter

fig, axs = mpl.pylab.subplots(1, 3)

xs = np.arange(10)
ys = 1 + xs ** 2 * 1e-3

axs[0].set_title('default y-labeling')
axs[0].scatter(xs, ys)
axs[1].set_title('custom y-labeling')
axs[1].scatter(xs, ys)
axs[2].set_title('x, pos arguments')
axs[2].scatter(xs, ys)


fmt = lambda x, pos: '1+ {:.0f}e-3'.format((x-1)*1e3, pos)
axs[1].yaxis.set_major_formatter(mpl.ticker.FuncFormatter(fmt))

fmt = lambda x, pos: 'x={:f}\npos={:f}'.format(x, pos)
axs[2].yaxis.set_major_formatter(mpl.ticker.FuncFormatter(fmt))

You can also use 'real'-functions instead of lambdas, of course. https://matplotlib.org/3.1.1/gallery/ticks_and_spines/tick-formatters.html

The answer above is probably the correct way to do it, but didn't work for me.

The hacky way that solved it for me was the following:

ax = <whatever your plot is> 
# get the current labels 
labels = [item.get_text() for item in ax.get_xticklabels()]
# Beat them into submission and set them back again
ax.set_xticklabels([str(round(float(label), 2)) for label in labels])
# Show the plot, and go home to family 
plt.show()

See the relevant documentation in general and specifically

from matplotlib.ticker import FormatStrFormatter

fig, ax = plt.subplots()

ax.yaxis.set_major_formatter(FormatStrFormatter('%.2f'))

If you are directly working with matplotlib's pyplot (plt) and if you are more familiar with the new-style format string, you can try this:

from matplotlib.ticker import StrMethodFormatter
plt.gca().yaxis.set_major_formatter(StrMethodFormatter('{x:,.0f}')) # No decimal places
plt.gca().yaxis.set_major_formatter(StrMethodFormatter('{x:,.2f}')) # 2 decimal places

From the documentation:

class matplotlib.ticker.StrMethodFormatter(fmt)

Use a new-style format string (as used by str.format()) to format the tick.

The field used for the value must be labeled x and the field used for the position must be labeled pos.