X-axis label on two rows

Question

str = {'HS31'; 'HS31 (Ridotto)';
    'Dax85';'Dax85 (Ridotto)';
    'FTSE89';'FTSE89 (Ridotto)';
    'SP98';'SP98 (Ridotto)';
    'Nikkei22';'Nikkei225 (Ridotto)';
    'SP457';'SP457 (Ridotto)';
    'Russ1318';'Russ1318 (Ridotto)';
    'Russ2151';'Russ2151 (Ridotto)';
    'Eurostoxx';'Eurostoxx (Ridotto)';
    'Ftse';'HS31 (Ridotto)';
    'Mibtel';'Mibtel (Ridotto)';
    'SP';'SP (Ridotto)';
    'Nasdaq';'Nasdaq (Ridotto)';

};
h=figure;
bar(t);
set(gca, 'XTickLabel',str, 'XTick',1:numel(str))

saveas(h, 'Backtesting/computing_time.png');

I can't read the text below the plot. Do you know how to fix it?

Screenshot: https://www.dropbox.com/s/g43iegh4oeng3kf/computing_time.png

Answer 1

If you are okay with 90 degrees rotated text, you may try this code that is based on a very useful x-label rotating text tool, available here

Code

h=figure;
bar(randi(9,26,1),'EdgeColor','g') %// Assumed random data for demo
set(gca, 'XTickLabel',str, 'XTick',1:numel(str))
xticklabel_rotate([],90,str);%% File-exchange code %// xlabel text rotated
saveas(h, 'computing_time.png');

Sample plot with some random data

If you are okay with down-sampling the x-label text, i.e. for example show only every other label, use this right before creating the figure handle -

str(1:2:end)={[]}

Rest of the code stays the same. The output plot would look like this -

If you still want to keep the data horizontal, you need to downsample the number of labels by a good factor. In your given sample case, a factor of 4 worked. The changes in the code is adding the following code right after declaring str and of course commenting the x-label rotating tool usage -

str1 = cell(1,numel(str));
str1(1:4:end) = str(1:4:end);
str = str1;

The trick here is to use empty cells for the x-labels that you want to skip.

Result -

Answer 2

Whats missing in the answer by Divakar is actually a solution with two (or more) rows. You can simulate it with text boxes at certain positions.

str = {'HS31'; 'HS31 (Ridotto)';
    'Dax85';'Dax85 (Ridotto)';
    'FTSE89';'FTSE89 (Ridotto)';
    'SP98';'SP98 (Ridotto)';
    'Nikkei22';'Nikkei225 (Ridotto)';
    'SP457';'SP457 (Ridotto)';
    'Russ1318';'Russ1318 (Ridotto)';
    'Russ2151';'Russ2151 (Ridotto)';
    'Eurostoxx';'Eurostoxx (Ridotto)';
    'Ftse';'HS31 (Ridotto)';
    'Mibtel';'Mibtel (Ridotto)';
    'SP';'SP (Ridotto)';
    'Nasdaq';'Nasdaq (Ridotto)';};
bar(rand(26, 1));
% clear labels existing so far
set(gca, 'XTickLabel', {});

% parameters
spacing = 0.03; % between different rows of labels and between x-axis and label
rows = 2; % number of rows in staggered layout
heightAdjust = 0.1; % reduce height of figure to make space for vertically stacked labels

pos = get(gca,'Position');
set(gca, 'Position', pos+ [0 heightAdjust 0 -heightAdjust] )

ylim = get(gca, 'YLim');
for i = 1 : length(str) % for all labels
    % compute y position of label (depends on x, therefore staggered)
    y = ylim(1) - spacing - spacing * mod(i - 1, rows);
    % print text box at correct position to simulate label
    text('Units', 'Data', 'Position', [i, y], 'HorizontalAlignment', 'center', 'String', str(i));
end

The number of rows and some spacing parameters have to be set manually. And it looks like this when the figure is maximized.