How to get highcharts dates in the x axis?

Question

Is there a standard way to get dates on the x-axis for Highcharts? Can't find it in their documentation: http://www.highcharts.com/ref/#xAxis--type

When my time range is large enough, it shows dates. However, when the time range isn't large enough, it just shows hours, like this:

This is less than ideal... if it could show a date and time in this case, that'd be great. Anyone know how?

Answer 1

Highcharts will automatically try to find the best format for the current zoom-range. This is done if the xAxis has the type 'datetime'. Next the unit of the current zoom is calculated, it could be one of:

• second
• minute
• hour
• day
• week
• month
• year

This unit is then used find a format for the axis labels. The default patterns are:

second: '%H:%M:%S',
minute: '%H:%M',
hour: '%H:%M',
day: '%e. %b',
week: '%e. %b',
month: '%b \'%y',
year: '%Y'

If you want the day to be part of the "hour"-level labels you should change the dateTimeLabelFormats option for that level include %d or %e. These are the available patters:

• %a: Short weekday, like 'Mon'.
• %A: Long weekday, like 'Monday'.
• %d: Two digit day of the month, 01 to 31.
• %e: Day of the month, 1 through 31.
• %b: Short month, like 'Jan'.
• %B: Long month, like 'January'.
• %m: Two digit month number, 01 through 12.
• %y: Two digits year, like 09 for 2009.
• %Y: Four digits year, like 2009.
• %H: Two digits hours in 24h format, 00 through 23.
• %I: Two digits hours in 12h format, 00 through 11.
• %l (Lower case L): Hours in 12h format, 1 through 11.
• %M: Two digits minutes, 00 through 59.
• %p: Upper case AM or PM.
• %P: Lower case AM or PM.
• %S: Two digits seconds, 00 through 59

http://api.highcharts.com/highcharts#xAxis.dateTimeLabelFormats