# When plotting, option "showaxis" does not accept "Symbol" or "String" type

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/when-plotting-option-showaxis-does-not-accept-symbol-or-string-type/34782>\
**Category:** Visualization\
**Tags:** question, plotting\
**Created:** [February 17, 2020, 11:42pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/when-plotting-option-showaxis-does-not-accept-symbol-or-string-type/34782 "2020-02-17T23:42:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![tferic](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/tferic/32/12916_2.png) [@tferic](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/tferic)\
**Post date:** [February 17, 2020, 11:42pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/when-plotting-option-showaxis-does-not-accept-symbol-or-string-type/34782/1 "2020-02-17T23:42:48Z")

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Hi,  
I am using Julia 1.0.3 in JuliaBox.  
I am facing an error when trying to use the “ **showaxis** ” option in plotting.  
I am trying to hide the labels of the x-axis, and display the labels of the y-axis.

According to the [documentation](https://docs.juliaplots.org/latest/attributes/#axis), the option “showaxis” should accept “Bool, Symbol or String”.  
But when I’m trying to use it, I am getting errors in non-boolean context.  
Am I missing something?

Example code:

```julia
using Plots
gr()
plot(1,1,showaxis=:x)

```

The error message I get is:

```julia
TypeError: non-boolean (Symbol) used in boolean context

```

In fact, I am plotting in the polar coordinates system, and I would like to to move the axis of “r” to the left of the polar circle, as there are too many scatter dots inside the polar plot. But I can’s see any option for this.

Kind regards  
Toni

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![oheil](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/oheil/32/220745_2.png) [@oheil](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/oheil)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2020, 2:35pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/when-plotting-option-showaxis-does-not-accept-symbol-or-string-type/34782/2 "2020-02-18T14:35:56Z")

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It seems the docs are wrong or outdated.  
You may try

```julia
plot(1,1,xshowaxis=true)

```

and/or  
`yshowaxis`

I found them here  
[https://docs.juliaplots.org/latest/supported/](https://docs.juliaplots.org/latest/supported/)  
as not supported but they work (Julia 1.3.1 here).

For the polar plot it may be different.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tferic](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/tferic/32/12916_2.png) [@tferic](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/tferic)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2020, 11:00pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/when-plotting-option-showaxis-does-not-accept-symbol-or-string-type/34782/3 "2020-02-18T23:00:52Z")

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> [@oheil](#):
>
> xshowaxis=true

Many thanks! Yes indeed, it works with gr().

And I noticed that xshowaxis maps to polar Θ and yshowaxis maps to polar “r”.  
So, it also works for polar plots. 🙂