How to set xtics with xticlabels

I would like to make a candlesticks chart with the day in the X axis for ever 5 days. But when I use "xticlabels" it just ignore the "set xtics 5"

My code:

set terminal pdf size 29.7cm,21.0cm dashed

set output 'Ciclo.pdf'
set datafile separator ","

set border linecolor rgbcolor "black"

set palette defined (-1 'red', 1 'green')
set cbrange [-1:1]
unset colorbox

d_source = "ciclo.csv"

set grid x
set grid y

set title "Title"

unset xlabel
set xtics 5, 5
set xtics rotate by -45

unset ylabel
set ytics

set style fill solid

plot d_source using 1:3:4:5:6:($6 < $3 ? -1 : 1) with candlesticks palette notitle
plot d_source using 1:3:4:5:6:($6 < $3 ? -1 : 1):xticlabels(2) with candlesticks palette notitle

My data set is: Count, Date, Open, High, Low, Close

the output with out xticlabels:

and with xticlabels:

Edit 1:

There is gaps in the financial data (holidays and weekends). and formatting the x-axis as date or I will have gaps in my plot or it will present the wrong date.

Rephrasing the question, how to control the number of tics with text labels.

Edit 2:

Using the bellow function will do the trick:

everyNth(countColumn, labelColumnNum, N) = \
  ( (int(column(countColumn)) % N == 0) ? stringcolumn(labelColumnNum) : "" ) 
set xtics rotate 90

plot d_source using 1:3:4:5:6:($6 < $3 ? -1 : 1):xticlabels(everyNth(1, 2, 5)) with candlesticks palette notitle

Theozh solution (second script) is the best one!

N = 5
plot d_source using 1:3:4:5:6:($6 < $3 ? -1 : 1) with candlesticks palette notitle, \
     d_source every N using ($0*N):(NaN):xtic(2)

If you use xticlabels() or shorter xtic(), your labels will be text labels, not numerical values. So, if you want the x-axis to be a time axis, simply define it as such.

set format x "%d/%m/%Y" timedate

In gnuplot, time is handled as seconds passed since January, 1st 1970. If you now want tics every five days set xtics 5*24*3600 (which is five days in seconds).

Script:

### plot timedata candlestick
reset session

fmt       = "%d/%m/%Y"
secPerDay = 24*3600

# create some random test data
set table $Data
    y0 = 100
    t0 = time(0)
    plot '+' u 0:(strftime(fmt,t0+$0*secPerDay)):(y0):(yH=y0+rand(0)*10): \
         (yL=y0-rand(0)*10):(y0=yL+rand(0)*(yH-yL)) w table
unset table

set grid x,y
set rmargin 8
set key noautotitle
set style fill solid noborder
set format x fmt timedate
set xtics 5*secPerDay rotate by -45

color(colO,colC) = column(colC)<column(colO) ? 0xff0000 : 0x00ff00

plot $Data u (timecolumn(2,fmt)):3:4:5:6:(color(3,6)) w candlesticks lc rgb var
### end of script

Result:

Addition:

Here is a version where the data has no weekend days and only every Nth tic is actually labeled.

• plot the data with pseudocolumn 0 as x-value (check help pseudocolumns)
• in the second plot command you will only plot every Nth (here: 5) data point setting the date as text xtic label

Script: (requires gnuplot>=5.4, because of w table if ...)

### plot time data without weekend/holiday gaps
reset session

fmt       = "%d/%m/%Y"
secPerDay = 24*3600

# create some random test data without weekends
set table $Data
    y0 = 100
    t0 = time(0)
    plot '+' u (d=int(tm_wday(t0))%6, sprintf("%d %s %g %g %g %g", $0, \
          strftime(fmt, t0=t0+secPerDay), y0, yH=y0+rand(0)*10, \
          yL=y0-rand(0)*10, y0 = d ? yL+rand(0)*(yH-yL) : y0)) w table if d
unset table

set grid x,y
set rmargin 8
set key noautotitle
set style fill solid noborder
set format x fmt timedate
set xtics 5*secPerDay rotate by -45

color(colO,colC) = column(colC)<column(colO) ? 0xff0000 : 0x00ff00

N = 5
plot $Data u 0:3:4:5:6:(color(3,6)) w candlesticks lc rgb var, \
        '' every N u ($0*N):(NaN):xtic(2)
### end of script

Result: