iOS & macOS Charting Documentation - SciChart iOS & macOS Charts SDK v4.x

Axis Ticks - TickProvider and DeltaCalculator API

It is possible to further customize the MajorDelta, MinorDelta and affect the tick frequency of an axis, to have a totally custom set of axis ticks (gridlines, label intervals) on the chart. That can be achieved quite easily through DeltaCalculator and TickProvider APIs.

Creating your own DeltaCalculator

To have full control over the calculations of MajorDelta and MinorDelta you will need to create a custom ISCIDeltaCalculator. By default each ISCITickProvider has a DeltaCalculator created for it. The type of DeltaCalculator depends on the TickProvider. Below is a table of the DeltaCalculator already defined in SciChart iOS.

Delta Calculator Type Used By
SCINumericDeltaCalculator SCINumericTickProvider and SCICategoryTickProvider
SCILogarithmicDeltaCalculator SCILogarithmicNumericTickProvider
SCIDateDeltaCalculator SCIDateTickProvider

To create a custom ISCIDeltaCalculator, you need to inherit from the correct class, according to the table above, then override -[ISCIDeltaCalculator getDeltaFromRangeMin:max:minorsPerMajor:maxTicks:] method. This method is called internally by ISCITickProvider for every axis when it needs to recalculate SCIAxisDelta.

Let’s create a custom ISCIDeltaCalculator and use it with SCINumericTickProvider for SCINumericAxis.

#import <SciChart/SCIDeltaTickProvider+Protected.h> @interface CustomNumericDeltaCalculator : SCINumericDeltaCalculator @end @implementation CustomNumericDeltaCalculator - (id)getDeltaFromRangeMin:(id)min max:(id)max minorsPerMajor:(unsigned int)minorsPerMajor maxTicks:(unsigned int)maxTicks { // For the sake of simplicity, we will use simple constants. // But you might want to have some complex calculations here. NSNumber *minorDelta = @(0.07); NSNumber *majorDelta = @(0.1); return [[SCIAxisDelta alloc] initWithMinorDelta:minorDelta majorDelta:majorDelta]; } @end … // create a SCINumericTickProvider with CustomNumericDeltaCalculator and assign it to the axis axis.tickProvider = [[SCINumericTickProvider alloc] initWithDeltaCalculator:[CustomNumericDeltaCalculator new]];
import SciChart.Protected.SCIDeltaTickProvider class CustomNumericDeltaCalculator: SCINumericDeltaCalculator { override func getDeltaFromRangeMin(_ min: ISCIComparable!, max: ISCIComparable!, minorsPerMajor: UInt32, maxTicks: UInt32) -> ISCIAxisDelta! { // For the sake of simplicity, we will use simple constants. // But you might want to have some complex calculations here. let minorDelta = NSNumber(value: 0.07) let majorDelta = NSNumber(value: 0.1) return SCIAxisDelta(minorDelta: minorDelta, majorDelta: majorDelta) } } … // create a SCINumericTickProvider with CustomNumericDeltaCalculator and assign it to the axis axis.tickProvider = SCINumericTickProvider(deltaCalculator: CustomNumericDeltaCalculator())
class CustomNumericDeltaCalculator : SCINumericDeltaCalculator { public override IISCIAxisDelta getDeltaFromRange(IISCIComparable min, IISCIComparable max, uint minorsPerMajor, uint maxTicks) { // For the sake of simplicity, we will use simple constants. // But you might want to have some complex calculations here. var minorDelta = new NSNumber(0.07).FromComparable(); var majorDelta = new NSNumber(0.1).FromComparable(); return new SCIAxisDelta(minorDelta, majorDelta); } } … // create a SCINumericTickProvider with CustomNumericDeltaCalculator and assign it to the axis axis.TickProvider = new SCINumericTickProvider(new CustomNumericDeltaCalculator());

Numeric Delta Calculator

Creating your own TickProvider

If you need to have fine grained control over axis ticks output, and custom Delta Calculator isn’t enough - you might want to use ISCIAxisCore.tickProvider property, which is available for all Axis Types. To use it - you will need to provide a custom ISCITickProvider and set it on your axis.

By default each axis has a ISCITickProvider created and assigned to it. The type of TickProvider depends on the type of Axis. Below is a table of the TickProviders already defined in SciChart iOS.

Tick Provider Type Provide ticks For
SCINumericTickProvider SCINumericAxis
SCILogarithmicNumericTickProvider SCILogarithmicNumericAxis
SCIDateTickProvider SCIDateAxis
SCICategoryTickProvider SCICategoryDateAxis

To create a custom SCITickProvider, you need to inherit from the correct class, according to the Axis Type you have, and override -updateMinorTicks:andMajorTicks: method which is called internally for every axis when it needs to recalculate major and minor ticks for drawing.

Let’s create custom SCINumericTickProvider for SCINumericAxis

#import <SciChart/SCITickProvider+Protected.h> @interface CustomNumericTickProvider : SCINumericTickProvider @end @implementation CustomNumericTickProvider - (void)updateMinorTicks:(SCIDoubleValues *)minorTicks andMajorTicks:(SCIDoubleValues *)majorTicks { double min = self.axis.visibleRange.minAsDouble; double max = self.axis.visibleRange.maxAsDouble; [majorTicks add:min]; [majorTicks add:(min + max) / 2]; [majorTicks add:max]; } @end … // create a CustomNumericTickProvider and assign it to the axis axis.tickProvider = [CustomNumericTickProvider new];
import SciChart.Protected.SCITickProvider class CustomNumericTickProvider: SCINumericTickProvider { override func updateTicks(minorTicks: SCIDoubleValues!, majorTicks: SCIDoubleValues!) { let min = self.axis.visibleRange.minAsDouble let max = self.axis.visibleRange.maxAsDouble majorTicks.add(min) majorTicks.add((min + max) / 2) majorTicks.add(max) } } … // create a CustomNumericTickProvider and assign it to the axis axis.tickProvider = CustomNumericTickProvider()
class CustomNumericTickProvider: SCINumericTickProvider { public override void UpdateTicks(SCIDoubleValues minorTicks, SCIDoubleValues majorTicks) { var min = this.Axis.VisibleRange.MinAsDouble; var max = this.Axis.VisibleRange.MaxAsDouble; majorTicks.Add(min); majorTicks.Add((min + max) / 2); majorTicks.Add(max); } } … // create a CustomNumericTickProvider and assign it to the axis axis.TickProvider = new CustomNumericTickProvider();

Numeric Tick Provider