# Using dates as x axis in Makie.jl

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/using-dates-as-x-axis-in-makie-jl/133762>\
**Category:** Visualization\
**Tags:** plotting, dates, visualization, makie, cairomakie\
**Created:** [November 9, 2025, 4:27pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/using-dates-as-x-axis-in-makie-jl/133762 "2025-11-09T16:27:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![elwwan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/elwwan/32/211001_2.png) [@elwwan](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/elwwan)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2025, 4:27pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/using-dates-as-x-axis-in-makie-jl/133762/1 "2025-11-09T16:27:42Z")

</div>

Hello everyone,

I am trying to plot brackets in Makie.jl while using dates as the x axis. Unfortunately it gives me an error since I can’t use Date() as an argument in bracket!().

Here is the code that causes the error :

```julia-auto
bracket!(ax2, Date(2020, 3, 17), 620, Date(2020, 5, 11), 620, text = "Confinement", style = :curly)

```

Here is my full code (the error is at the end) :

```julia-auto
using CSV, DataFrames, CairoMakie, Dates, BenchmarkTools

# Parse the string into a date
function parse_date(date_string)
    v = parse.(Int, String.(split(date_string, "/")))
    return Date(v[3], v[2], v[1])
end
# Calcule décès par jours
function diff(v)
    diffs = zeros(Int, length(v))
    diffs[1] = v[1]
    for i in 2:length(v)
        diffs[i] = v[i] - v[i-1]
    end
    return diffs
end

data = DataFrame(CSV.File("COVID_Data_2.csv"), ["date", "nombre"])
data[!, :date] = parse_date.(data[!, :date])
data[!, :evo] = diff(data[!, :nombre])

begin

    f = Figure(size=(16*100, 9*100))

    # Évolution
    ax1 = Axis(f[1,1], 
        limits = (nothing, nothing, 0, 800),
        ylabel = "Nombre de décès par jours",
        ylabelfont = :bold
    )

    @views barplot!(ax1, data[!, :date], data[!, :evo])

    # Morts cumulés
    ax2 = Axis(f[1,1], aspect=(16/9), yaxisposition = :right,
        limits = (nothing, nothing, 0, 140_000),
        title = "Évolution des décès liés à la COVID du 18/03/2020 au 31/03/2023 en France métropolitaine",
        titlesize = 20,
        
        xlabel = "Date",
        ylabel = "Nombre cummulés de décès (en milliers)",
        xlabelfont = :bold,
        ylabelfont = :bold,
        yticks = ([i for i in 0:10_000:140_000], ["$i" for i in 0:10:140])
    )
    hidespines!(ax2)
    hidexdecorations!(ax2)
    @views lines!(ax2, data[!, :date], data[!, :nombre])

    # Confinement
    bracket!(ax2, Date(2020, 3, 17), 620, Date(2020, 5, 11), 620, text = "Confinement", style = :curly)
    f
end

```

Thank you for your help !

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![technocrat](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/technocrat/32/220947_2.png) [@technocrat](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/technocrat)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2025, 9:09pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/using-dates-as-x-axis-in-makie-jl/133762/2 "2025-11-09T21:09:59Z")

</div>

Since you can’t use Dates, substitute an Int index for the date and then customize ticks.

```julia-auto
using CSV, DataFrames, CairoMakie, Dates, BenchmarkTools, Statistics

the_dates = collect(Date("2020-03-17"):Day(1):Date("2020-05-11"))# Parse the string into a date

λ = 0.12 # decay rate (tune as needed)
raw = round.(Int, 2200 .* exp.(-λ .* (0:80)))
decay = unique(raw) # drop repeated plateaus
decay[end] == 0 || push!(decay, 0) .* exp.(-λ .* (0:80))
the_deaths = unique(raw) # drop repeated plateaus
the_deaths[end] == 0 || push!(the_deaths, 0)

data = DataFrame(date=the_dates, nombre=the_deaths)

data.evo = [nothing; diff(data[!, :nombre])]
data[1, 3] = 0
data[!, :evo] = Int.(coalesce.(data[!, :evo], 0))

f = Figure(size=(16 * 100, 9 * 100))
ax1 = Axis(f[1, 1])
ax2 = Axis(f[1, 2])

@views barplot!(ax1, data[!, :date], data[!, :evo])
# Pretend each date is 1, 2, … for the plot primitives
barplot!(ax2, xvals, data.evo) # or whatever you’re plotting
tick_pos = round.(Int, range(1, length(data.date), length=7))
tick_pos = unique(tick_pos) # drop duplicates if the range collapsed

xvals = collect(eachindex(data.date))
tick_labels = Dates.format.(data.date[tick_pos], "yyyy-mm-dd")

ax2.xticks = (tick_pos, tick_labels)
ax2.xticklabelrotation[] = π / 4

bracket!(ax2,
    Point2f(first(xvals), 56),
    Point2f(last(xvals), 56);
    text="Confinement", style=:curly)

```

 ![display](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/1/4/146e652bf1bcfafe9c3edf01c9a49a6fad28d7bb.png)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![elwwan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/elwwan/32/211001_2.png) [@elwwan](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/elwwan)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2025, 9:13pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/using-dates-as-x-axis-in-makie-jl/133762/3 "2025-11-09T21:13:10Z")

</div>

> [@technocrat](#):
>
> `xticklabelrotation`

Thank you very much ! It works perfectly !

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nilshg](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/nilshg/32/2283_2.png) [@nilshg](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/nilshg)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2025, 9:40am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/using-dates-as-x-axis-in-makie-jl/133762/4 "2025-11-10T09:40:06Z")

</div>

Just to add to this - if you want to retain the spacing of dates rather than just have them sequentially, you can use `Dates` functions to do so.

Date axis support in Makie was relatively recently added and has regressed on the last release, but I think the plan is that at some point in the future none of these hacks are necessary. For now, I’m doing the following:

```julia-auto
const d2e = Dates.date2epochdays
maketicks(x; format = "d-u-yy") = (d2e.(x), Dates.format.(x, format))

lines(d2e.(my_data.date), my_data.value,
    axis = (; xlabel = "Date", ylabel = "Value", xticks = maketicks(Date(2020):Month(6):Date(2025, 7)), xticklabelrotation = π/4)
)

```

you can then use `d2e.(some_dates)` on (afaik) every plot type in Makie.