Change grid interval and specify tick labels in Matplotlib

Question

I am trying to plot counts in gridded plots, but I am not being able to figure out how I go about it. I want to:

1. Have dotted grids at an interval of 5

Answer 1

A subtle alternative to MaxNoe's answer where you aren't explicitly setting the ticks but instead setting the cadence.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from matplotlib.ticker import (AutoMinorLocator, MultipleLocator)

fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(10, 8))

# Set axis ranges; by default this will put major ticks every 25.
ax.set_xlim(0, 200)
ax.set_ylim(0, 200)

# Change major ticks to show every 20.
ax.xaxis.set_major_locator(MultipleLocator(20))
ax.yaxis.set_major_locator(MultipleLocator(20))

# Change minor ticks to show every 5. (20/4 = 5)
ax.xaxis.set_minor_locator(AutoMinorLocator(4))
ax.yaxis.set_minor_locator(AutoMinorLocator(4))

# Turn grid on for both major and minor ticks and style minor slightly
# differently.
ax.grid(which='major', color='#CCCCCC', linestyle='--')
ax.grid(which='minor', color='#CCCCCC', linestyle=':')